Cirrus and Lancair Make Bonanza Obsolete?

"Snowbird" wrote in message
om...
Prior to Cirrus, the FAA requires all planes certified in the normal
category to be able to recover from the initial phase of a spin
(incipient
spin) -- the first turn or 3 seconds, whichever is *longer* -- using
normal
control inputs, within one additional turn. The only exception is if
they are certified as spin *resistant*.

Okay,but...

An incipient or initial spin takes considerably more altitude to
recover
than a stall. In some current aircraft certified in the normal
category,
it can take *over 1000 feet* with a sharp, proficient test pilot at
the
controls. Therefore it could be problematic for *any* aircraft,
including
those certified with a recovery procedure using normal controls, to
recover
from even an incipient spin in the traffic pattern.

1000 feet does not sounds like "3 seconds/ first turn"....

Bruce Lansburg wrote an article for AOPA regarding alternate
certification
adopted for Cirrus and Columbia:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/asfarticles/2003/sp0302.html

Basically, the rationale was to make the Cirrus more spin resistant
(although it is not certified as spin resistant) and then to install
the ballistic chute, which is supposed to take about 1000 ft.

Reading the NTSB accident reports, it sounds like they've had quite a few
spin accidents (some fatal, some not...I'm looking at ALL
accidents/incidents, not just the FATAL ones), given the relatively few
numbers in operation (denying the connection because Cirrus' has only been
in opeation a few years is a non-issue and lacks understanding of
statistics.


This is not *less* than most normal-category aircraft would take to
recover from an incipient spin; it is comparable. A few, docile
spinning aircraft with proficient pilots at the controls, could
recover in less altitude. Maybe a few hundred feet, but that's not
typical of normal-category aircraft which aren't certified for spins.
It's more typical of utility or aerobatic aircraft with *good* spin
characteristics (and note that even aircraft which are certified for
spins may have lousy recovery characteristics outside the utility
CG envelope).

Hope this helps,

It does...but compare the apparent spin accident numbers for Cirrus vs
Bonanza (the more directly comparable bird is the F33A) and it's amazing. I
saw about four or five for Cirrus, vs. 1 for the F33, even though the F33
has about twenty time the number of SR-22's in the air.

The intent to make the SR-22 more spin resistant does not seem to have been
successful.