Evening star., 1934-10-14

at once.
The falling leaf Is the best named Of
all aerial gymnastics because, If prop
erly done the plane falls in the same
way that leaf or piece OF paper does
with great deal of spread-out motion.
but a relatively slow rate of descent.
This is really an easy evolution, but II
not executed properly 1t doesn't really
qualify as true stunt, being only .
plane tumbling about in the heavens.
I Well, then, let's ride with the pilot ON
an imaginary falling leaf. You're up at
about 5000 feet when the pilot closes the
throttle and casually remarks: Failing
leaf"
Back goes the stick. fairly fast, and
the plane responds by rearing up on its
tail. Just as. it reaches that precarious
position over goes the rudder to the
right and the plane falls sideways with
the nose travelling through 180-degree
arc to point straight at the ground.
The rudder goes to neutral after the
fall is started. But the stick stays
back and the plane hattens out at the
bottom of the semi-circle and starts up
again. This time, as the nose once more
points toward heaven, the left rudder Is
pushed over and the fall is repeated In
that direction These two maneuvers,
taken singly, would be called right and
left wing lovers, but in sequence, they're
simply sections of falling leaf.
With the left fall completed, the pilot
eases up on the stick and stops the nose
at a point about 10 degrees above the
horizon. Over goes the stick hard to
the left and full left rudder is applied.
The right wing goes down and the plane
slips horizontally with the fuselage
parallel to the ground and the wings
pointing earthward and skyward. Now
the stick comes back to neutral, but the
rudder stays full left. The wind is tear
ing at your helmet and goggles from the
right and you don't seem to care for
side slip. Not at all.
Just as the nose of the plane starts
to drop below the skyline, which it will
sooner or later, the rudder is put in
neutral and the stick to the left and
slightly back. This brings you up
through level flight and starts the plane
on a left slip. Right rudder, of course,
goes on and stays there as long as the
pilot desires the plane to continue the
motion. These are, as you already know.
right and left sideslips and are also sec
tions of the falling leaf.
So there we have it. Wing-overs and
side-slips properly mixed and with the
degree of fall and angle varied, make
one Of the prettiest of all aerial gym
mastics-that is, viewed from the ground.
From the point of view of the passenger
who is not good sailor there is nothing
pretty about it. It's awful! Such an
unfortunate usually loses far more than
his enthusiasm for aviation. Splendid
way for pilot to pay of old scores!
Just what is barrel roll? Well, it's
one complete turn of tail spin effected
horizontally instead Of vertically. The
aerodynamic cause is exactly the same
as that of spin, the only difference
between the two being that in roll
the plane is travelling forward with suffi-
cient momentum to keep it revolving
horizontally when the cause for stall
and rotation is brought into play.
When you see plane dying placidly
along, suddenly rear up, revolve eccen-
trically about horizontal axis and then
straighten into level flight, you have
witnessed barrel roll There are sew
eral variations of this which include the
degree Of rotation and the position from
which the roll is started. But they are
basically the same maneuver, the only
difference being the point or position at