Anyone who briefly checks out that Finnish report on the accident should actually READ the accident report. It was noted that the pilot simply trimmed the aircraft for takeoff, and allowed it to climb without further input by the pilot. He had never actually stalled the airplane, and like the pilot of the Colgan Air Dash 8 accident in Buffalo, he didn't recognize the stall warning for what it was.
The Finnish government put an RSTOL airplane through a LOT (as in a couple hundred) stalls, and eventually managed to get one to roll off.......duh. I'd bet that with a few hundred tries, we could get a LOT of airplanes to roll off in a stall. The Finnish accident report accurately placed the blame for the accident on the pilot, but then went off on a tangent trying to demonstrate the "dangerous" flight characteristics of this modification. Anyone who's flown an RSTOL airplane and done aggressive stalls will tell you that if you push them hard, occassionally they'll roll off hard. Big deal--don't be stupid.
I'm with Dave on this one....we hear all these experts on RSTOL airplanes, and others, and yet those airplanes are out there, working, every day. I put a lot of hours on RSTOL equipped airplanes and, if I were to do the same kind of work again (almost exclusively off airport) I'd want an RSTOL airplane again
Do RSTOL equipped airplanes have less aileron authority AT CERTAIN FLAP SETTINGS? Certainly. So, in certain, very limited circumstances, you may have to say no to a landing or a takeoff. Or maybe learn what flap settings minimize this effect. On the other hand, EVERY time you takeoff or land or maneuver at slow speed, an RSTOL Cessna 185s stall speed will be FOURTEEN knots lower than a stock wing airplane. And that is documented by full FAA flight test program, NOT an advertising claim, like we see for many other mods. The RSTOL mods do significantly reduce stall speed....far more so than any other so called STOL modification I've seen.
There are a lot of ways to use that capability, folks. Go get some time in one, learn to fly it, actually WORK it, and learn it's characteristics, both negative and positive and I think most folks conclude that the positives far out shine the minor limits on aileron effectiveness.
And, A simple, inexpensive modification to the RSTOL airplanes greatly restores the aileron effectiveness in RSTOL airplanes: Aileron gap seals. Easy to install and pretty cheap.
Finally, a lot of Cub pilots have discovered that the Super Cub has pretty limited aileron effectiveness at slow speeds. The Vortex Generator kits that have gained so much popularity with the Cub crowd REALLY improve aileron effectiveness in the Cub at slow speeds as well. Fly a Cub with VGs for a good while, then go back to a straight wing Cub, and the difference is noticeable. But, again, it's just a characteristic that the PILOT must learn to compensate for.
Oh, and by the way, many deHavilland Canada products, such as the Beaver, Otter, etc also droop their ailerons with flap deflection......I guess they're dangerous as well..
MTV