I'm not clear on how the stall and spin in the Basic IMAC should be performed.

I entered my first IMAC last weekend and had a blast. On the last round I got a zero on the spin from both judges. I ask why and they said my break was questionable and I used ailerons to spin. I agree I did use ailerons to get the plane to spin and the judging should have been a zero. So what is the correct way to enter the spin? I’m flying a Brent Good 106 Yak54 and the CG is a bit to the tail heavy side so the stall is difficult. This plane will just sink and not clearly drop the nose.

Any tips?

Jerry,

First off here is an article that describes exactly how a spin is judged which at the same time gives a pretty good description of how to do one, but it's very generic

http://www.mini-iac.com/InfoCentral/tabid/74/articleType/CategoryView/categoryId/9/Judging.aspx

You will probably have to cut and paste the address into the browser address area since it will not show up as a link, but if you have a problem with that, just go under Info Central, click on Judging and its down the list.

One of the first things is not to have a tail heavy plane. What you are getting is almost purely a result of being tail heavy, though there is a way I do the stall that gets the nose drop every time and right when I want it, in most cases. I do not hold full up elevator and wait for the stall, I give about 90% of the elevator and when I think the plane is slow enough I start feeding in the last of the elevator and boom, she'll raise the nose just slightly and blam, down comes the nose in a stall and at the same time I see the nose start to fall, in comes the rudder to ensure I get a wing down and follow with aileron.

Don't worry about the nose going into the vertical, as long as the CG does not climb there is no point deduction, BUT, once the nose starts to drop, a wing needs to start coming down at the same time. Points come off for the degrees that the nose drops before the wing drops.

Be sure to hold all surfaces until you are ready to stop the spin.

Your mileage may vary on how to get the plane to break, shear practice will help you. Remember it's all in the timing.

Jerry you need to come out and pratice with us some time and we can teach you the right way to spin,,,,, one note the field I fly at has noise issues so you must have a plane that is not loud or it will not be allowed to fly there.

Thanks for the tips.

Mark- where do you fly?

go to www.cvrcflyers.com and click on Allen's field , it is a great place to fly !

You need to pull the nose up a tad and stall the plane. Then you will do your spin. One big thing that I have seen a lot of people get 0 for is letting the wing up to far. When you spin if the wing goes above the plane it is a 0. That is why you have to stall it and let the nose drop and then you can do your spin succesfully.

Hope this helps,
Michael

PS: Try to fly the sequence so that the spin is always into the wind. This will help your break a lot.

If the plane is already stalled(nose going down and autorotation starting) and the wind picks up the wing then it cannot be a zero. During the actual stall, no deductions can be given as the pilot has essential no to very little control.

Now if the wing comes up AND over BEFORE the stall it can be either a snap entry or even a barrel roll then it is a zero because the stall never occurred. The problem here is I've seen a gust of wind toss the wing over right before the stall. Seen it happen to others as well as myself.

IE, the only time a spin is zero'd is if the stall never happens, anything else is point deductions. Forced entries are not zero'd unless it passes the 90 degree mark then it becomes a "soft" zero, meaning zero on point deductions