In rec.aviation.student Michael wrote:
On May 30, 3:36?am, "Hilton" wrote:
Why? ?Because all posts have made the (probably) incorrect assumption that
the aircraft somehow fly wings-levels to its demise. ?That just won't
happen. ?Forget dihedral, that won't stop it going into a spiral.

You're right, of course. The only way that will happen is with
artificial stability augmentation (a single axis autopilot). With a
two axis autopilot the plane will hit at stall speed. It may or may
not be wings level, depending on the stall characteristics.

See, this is what made the question such a good one. It allows lots
of room to explore different aspects of aerodynamic stability.

It's only good if the person asking the question intends this sort of
discussion, though. My mpression from the original context was that
they were searching for a single answer ("110kts") and wouldn't anticipate
this sort of varied response. If true, then that transforms it from a good
question to a bad question. It always drives me nuts when there's a
question on a test which has a "right" answer but is actually a very
complicated question with a lot of correct responses.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon