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Once the airspeed has been reduced to
below the minimum speed for the canopy
the wing will stall. To the pilot it feels like
dropping backwards, not unlike the
sensation felt when a jester removes your
chair from under you when you sit down.
In this phase it is important to avoid
releasing the brakes again, as this may
lead to uncontrollable shooting forward of
the canopy. In extreme cases pilots have
fallen into the canopy through poor timed
full stall releases.
In the next phase the canopy stabilises
somewhat above the pilot again. The wing
tips will often tend to try to reinflate quite
violently, and it requires considerable
force to maintain the wing in the stalled
configuration.
It is important to stabilise the wing above
the pilots' head before releasing the brake
lines. The pilot accomplishes this by
slowly releasing the brakes until the wing
is all but reinflated across the entire span.
In this phase the wing will be moving
somewhat along the cross axis. The pilot
attempts to release the last bit of brake
input as the wing is surged forward
– this
will cause the wing to resume flight with
the least possible diving tendency. Pilots
should note that timing the release
wrongly may cause the wing to dive quite
aggressively and be prepared to catch the
dive.
Test pilots have also tested the
asymmetric release of full stalls on the
Summit XC². This manoeuvre is ONLY
for reference and should not be
emulated by owners.
CAREFUL!
The approach of
the minimum speed is
recognised through the
notable lack of forward
speed and thereby wind noise
and the extreme increase in
brake line tension. Up until the wing
starts to fall back the pilot may resume
normal flight by simply releasing the
brakes.
Spin
The negative spin occurs when one
side of the wing is stalled whilst the
other is still flying. This can happen
when, if flying very slowly, one brake is
pulled quickly to below the seat. When
the glider starts to spin, it will turn
quickly around the vertical axis, with
the stalled side flying backwards. To
recover from a spin, simply release the
brake on the stalled side. The glider
will immediately speed up and, most
likely, suffer an asymmetric collapse.
Recover as described above.
If you suspect that a spin is imminent
then immediately release the inside
brake. The glider will accelerate
smoothly and resume normal flight
with little altitude loss.
Wingovers
Wingovers are induced by flying
alternating turns; each time letting the
pendulum effect increase the bank
angle.
BEWARE!
The UP Summit
XC² is a agile glider, and it is
quite easy to get to an
excessively high angle of
bank in just a few turns.
Practice wingovers gently at
first, as there is a chance of quite
large collapses at high bank angles.
Also notice that a wingover flown with
more than 90 degrees bank angle is
classified as illegal aerobatics in some
countries!
