Steep Sprials - Why increase pitch when in shallow bank and vise versa in a steep
 

I'm in the process of doing a presentation for a group on steep spirals. My question is as follows.

Through various resources (AFH, Google, Instructors, etc) the common knowledge item is to decrease pitch on the downward side of the maneuver (steep bank) and to increase pitch on the upward side (shallow bank) to maintain airspeed. For the life of me I can't think of the physics behind it...in fact I think it is opposite...

From my experience, in a steeper bank the plane wants to accelerate because you are loosing more altitude...so why would decrease the pitch to accelerate the airplane even more?

Very confused...but I appreciate any help.

-Ryan

Think about where the winds are *hint, your point of reference as to why you need a steeper bank to a shallow one

Like Bri said, it is all has to do with the wind, just like Turns Around A Point, or S-Turns across a road

I understand the need for a higher/slower groundspeed. I'm talking about the literal idea of needing to push the nose down in a steep turn. I think I've figured it out tho...

In a regular steep turn you bump in some power passing through 30 degrees to help maintain airspeed which helps maintain altitude.

In a steep spiral the engine is effectively useless so the only thing you can do to maintain airspeed is pitch the nose down. You have to pitch the nose down more in the turn because you are using some of the airspeed to turn the airplane.

All is well, thanks for the help!

If you decrease your pitch (point up) when you're going down, you will negate the loss of lift caused by the steep bank. If you increase your pitch (point down) on a shallow bank, the opposite effect ensues. You're just being confused by a wording issue. No worries :)

They got it, and for me, this was one of my favorite commercial manuevers

Thanks so much for answering this question guys.. I had the identical issue because the books and vids I viewed used decrease and increase pitch in such a vague way that it didnt make any sense from what you need to do in the practical realm of things while performing this maneuver !!!

Planespotta, just kindly explain again what you said there...