34
35
Rise of Flight - Iron Cross Edition
13.4 Spin
A spin is very dangerous form of an uncontrolled fall or dive. The aircraft doesn’t
react to your control inputs as the aircraft has departed from its normal flight
envelope. Spins can occur very rapidly and you can lose altitude very quickly. A lot
of aviators crashed in WWI because they were unable to get out of a spin.
However, with Rise of Flight on your computer you can practice recovering from a
spin without putting your life in danger.
To recover an aircraft, follow these general guidelines.
1. You should stop or slow the rotation. Push the rudder pedal (twist the
stick) in the opposite direction of the spin and point the stick towards the
direction of the spin.
2. Lower the nose to raise your airspeed.
3. If the rotation slows or stops move the stick to a neutral position in the
roll axis, but keep the nose pointed down in the pitch axis to give your
wings some airspeed which will give them some lift.
4. If the aircraft is in an irregular spin and its nose begins to oscillate up and
down as it spins you need to stop the oscillation first. Push the stick
forward at the moment the nose is raised to its highest point and begins
to lower. Use the momentum of this downward movement to point the
nose downward.
Keeping the nose pointed downward is very important when trying to
recover from any spin. If you fail to do this the spin could be even faster.
The controllability of the aircraft usually restores immediately after
lowering the nose and gaining a little forward airspeed.
5. Once out of the spin, set all controls in neutral position and let the aircraft
to regain speed. After that, carefully pull the stick back to move the
aircraft to horizontal flight. Do not pull back too quickly; otherwise you
may get into the spin all over again.
There are planes that can recover from a spin easily by leaving the controls in a
neutral position (e.g. Fokker D.VII). There are planes that need full throttle to get
from the spin (Sopwith Camel). And there are planes that can recover from the
spin only with engine turned off (left spin of Sopwith Dolphin). Each plane has its
own spin behavior and pilots should become familiar with each plane’s spin
characteristics. A spin is a very dangerous yet exciting and interesting challenge
to piloting. Try it, experiment with it and research it. Pilots who practice spin
recovery and get acquainted with the different spin behaviors, do not fear it as
much and are more confident when in a dogfight.
And remember that spins are deadly at low altitude. There is little time to recover.
