AVSIM.....I NEED YOUR HELP!!!This will be my first thread out of many weeks lurking and posting.I need to know this one thing....On the steerman, There is a challenge where you have to climb to 3000 feet, stall on your left wing, bring throttle back to idle and hit your left rudder as far as it can go into a spin to the ground and recover.My issue is...I have the Saitek Yoke and Throttle Quadrent setup and use my keyboard for a more realistic and accurate rudderWhen I stall and go into a spin, the spin does not occur and I always fail the job.How do I do this for consecutive spins(I need at least 3) to pass the course?Do I need to have a bit of throttle while I am aiming towards the ground or what? I am confused!Thank you to any answers!

You'll get lots of answers. The main trick seems to be to go to full throttle the moment you push left rudder.It took me a few tries before I could get it the first time.Hook

Hold full up elevator during the spin. All you need to do is blip the throttle to get the rudder to be effective to start the spin.Let go of the controls to recover in this plane.

Flight's stall and spin characteristics are a bit ropey, as indeed they are in most flight simulators, in the real aircraft you could just pull the nose up, throttle back and then when it is shaking from the tail buffetting you get just before the stall as the elevators get battered by turbulent air, you kick on full rudder and haul back on the stick then add a quick blip of power, the yaw this induces from the rudder and engine torque-roll makes one wing stall a moment before the other, so it drops and you start to spin, In MS Flight, you should do more or less the same, but will probably have to keep the rudder pressed in to hold the aircraft in the spin, putting on some aileron might also help hold it in there, as will keeping the elevator back before you dive to recover. Take it up to 5,000 feet (which is a more realistic real world margin for powered aircraft spin practice) and that'll give you a bit more room to try.If you want to be ultra realistic, and for a bit of fun, you should perform a 'hassle check' before spinning, which involves going through the acronym HASSLL - H is height (have you got enough to safely recover in a dive and then pull out of it?) A is Airframe (is everything retracted or latched closed which might otherwise be damaged by the airspeed and turbulence, such as flaps, cowling gills, canopies and gear?) S is Security (is there anything loose in the cockpit that could fly about and injure you, or jam a control linkage?), next S is Straps (are they tightened?) L is lookout for other aircraft (which consists of making a turn and looking out below), and the last L is location (are you over a populated area? in case it all goes pear shaped and you have to bail out, since you don't want your abandoned aircraft coming down on a housing estate, football stadium or something like that).Don't sweat it by the way, the first time I ever tried to spin an aircraft for real, it just flopped into a weak stall LOL That was when I found out that you can't be gentle about trying to make an aircraft spin deliberately.Al

Do I need to have a bit of throttle while I am aiming towards the ground or what?

HeLLoYes you have to go down at full throttle. :)@@++sorry for my poor english

You don't need throttle as you go down, in fact the Stearman spins nice and flat when you bring the throttle back to idle.You'll know when you're in a spin when the airspeed isn't increasing and you are descending at a relatively show rate to a spiral dive.A spiral dive will rotate much like a spin, but you will be picking up lots of speed as you spiral on the way down. When you recover from a spin or fail to get into one, you'll find yourself in a dive.

IRL adding power in a spin tends to flatten the spin which can become unrecoverable.The problem with the Stearman is that MS (again) screwed up elevator trim.If you trim for a power off glide at 80mph and you pull fully back and apply right full rudder at the stall, she will remained in a weird semi-stalled spiral dive in which the speeds doesn't increase, but on the other hand it's definitely not a spin.If you trim for a power off 60mph glide and you do the same, she will enter the spin very nicely but within a turn the spin completely flattens and will end after a few turns in some weird tumbling.Another 'intersting' maneuver is to fly level with full power, apply and keep full rudder (and the wings level)

Entering a spin on some aircraft can really be difficult. I a good examples from my RL flying, only on gliders because that's what I fly for real - the ASK21! It is so difficult to enter a spin that we usually tell it is impossible...Regarding FLIGHT, beware that when mouse or keyboard control is used they auto-coordinate and auto-damp/center, so, to properly perform a spin you need a joystick. I've successfuly entered spins in the Maule and Stearman without any engine being needed. Pull the throttle to iddle and try flying horizontal until you get about 5kts above stall. Then, promptly apply full back elevator and full left or right rudder. This should do it...

My issue is...I have the Saitek Yoke and Throttle Quadrent setup and use my keyboard for a more realistic and accurate rudderWhen I stall and go into a spin, the spin does not occur and I always fail the job.How do I do this for consecutive spins(I need at least 3) to pass the course?

Hi watermouse, and welcome to the forums!I successfully did that particular challenge - I think I got it on the second attempt if I recall, and honestly cannot remember exactly how I did it as it has been some time ago. I "think" I ended up putting up elevator into it at the same time as full rudder.But you can enter a spin in the Stearman for sure, just takes the right timing. Others have already given excellent advice as well - a small blip on the throttle to move some air over the rudder to help it kick around can't hurt either. No need for full throttle at any point - whilst spinning going down, throttle should be idle.Keep trying , it feels great once you successfully get those three spins!

Entering a spin on some aircraft can really be difficult.

I'm not disputing that some aircraft are difficult to spin. But nothing beats the power of distraction!I remember when I was first starting out in my training and I did my first stalls and thought that you'd have to be a real goofball to stall an aircraft unintentionally.Then came a day when I was just turning from base onto final at a local untowered field and had 2 aircraft enter downwind at the same time from opposite directions. The rapid radio calls and my front row seat to the aircraft manuevering to see each other got my attention away enough from my approach long enough to be reminded where my attention needed to be... I hadn't yet trimmed the aircraft when I deployed 30 degrees of flaps and the airspeed was getting a bit low, the controls were getting mushy and suddenly the stall warning horn was starting to go off.It was a real eye opening moment. I'm sure there are a dozen ways I could have stalled/spun/mushed at too low an altitude if I had not handled that situtation properly that afternoon.We keep advising to add power and stall in an uncoordindated fashion to start the spin (full left/right rudder). Think about what happens when you mess up a go-around (full power, low airspeed, nose-high) and forget to put in the rudder and let the aircraft stall?I was rewarded in my next run through the pattern with a Stearman entering the pattern right behind me on downwind. I got to chat with the pilot and admire his HUGE 2-seat bi-plane after we parked.