Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
Who said it is coordinated. I used to do a "knife edge" slip all the way down, purposefully uncoordinated. Let me see if I can find the pictures of that. See my post no. 4 on the thread below for an explanation of the knife edge steep spiral. If done correctly it is the fastest way down and was/is used for decades by various drop zones. Structural issues arise when pilot technique is shoddy, and I would not recommend doing this maneuver without a g meter even with a decent pilot. You want to push 3 g's and no more, but poor pilot technique can lead to over g'ing the airplane.
Knife edge thread
Well, you can do a steep spiral and come down very fast without being uncoordinated at 60 degrees of bank, not to mention that I think most people assume coordinated flight unless specified otherwise. The FAA recently put out some stuff on using more than one control surface to input full deflections and Va, although I'd assume this is done slow enough where it's no problem. It's more than just pilot technique, it's knowledge and sometimes misunderstandings as to what the aircraft was really rated/intended for. I just don't see any major reason to do this uncoordinated. I've done plenty of high bank angle "knife edge" slips, but if I was taking people up flight after flight, I'd think equal fuel is a more important consideration.