The "falling leaf"

[Agent360]

I am reading the book "Samurai". It is the life story of the famous ace Saburo Sakai. In the begining chapters he mentions a maneuver called the "falling leaf". It is something he and his fellow pilots practiced quite often along with all the other typical aerial maneuvers.

I did a quick google search for this and found some conflicting examples and descriptions of this maneuver.

I was wondering if any of you history buffs have ever heard of this move and if so are there any historically accurate accounts/instructions on how to perform it.

Agent360

[2bighorn]

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZOPsQn2Mksg

[TonyJoey]

I love the part where he says "As soon as we decreases angle of attack, we came out of Wally World"

[titanic3]

 Still at PG... I want to see green and red on that windshield... 

[Agent360]

Yes I found that video on my search but I don't think that is the maneuver performed by Saburo Sakai.

I saw another video with an RC sim that was totally different.  And some text references to other "ways" of doing it.

However the video could be it. I can see how you could use the maneuver to create an overshoot while flying strait as opposed to a scissor type move.

[CAP1]

Yes I found that video on my search but I don't think that is the maneuver performed by Saburo Sakai.

I saw another video with an RC sim that was totally different.  And some text references to other "ways" of doing it.

However the video could be it. I can see how you could use the maneuver to create an overshoot while flying strait as opposed to a scissor type move.

it's definitly not the maneuver you described.  it actually looks to me like the instructor pilot is trying to put fear of the stall in the other guy.

[FireDragon]

The falling leaf will
      train the proper response of raising the wing with rudder while keeping the
      ailerons neutral.


  the term has been around since ww1 all the info i found so far is pretty congruent as to method

<S> 

be interesting to see other responses  sounds kind of cool almost "ZEN" like

[Bruv119]

just about to read it for the second time whilst at work this weekend.


Great book, one of the best IMO.

[humble]

Bob Hoover performed it alot in demonstrations. I think its used to describe a variety of manuevers regardless of its true meaning. In AH way back when I was flying the Ki-61 alot I could put the Ki-61 in a kind of "flutter" stall where it was more or less decending vertically and "fluttering" like a leaf falling....airspeeed was about 80 IAS and stall horn was on...BUT the stall was completely recoverable in a very short time frame and stable...the key was bleeding the speed down getting the flaps out and then rotating dead level at very close to full stall and getting the nose up with engine at idle....in effect your flaring like your landing but at altitude...if you do it right the plane falls almost straight down and can almost tail slide at times...but your not in a spin....just a very sharp almost straight down nose high decent.

[Messiah]

LOL the falling leaf, not sure if it's the same maneuver but it happens A LOT when I'm in a spitfire.  It's just a nasty stall that happens when you have flaps down, low speed and pull too much AOA and add a little rudder it falls like a leaf and is damn near impossible to get out of.

[goober69]

LOL the falling leaf, not sure if it's the same maneuver but it happens A LOT when I'm in a spitfire.  It's just a nasty stall that happens when you have flaps down, low speed and pull too much AOA and add a little rudder it falls like a leaf and is damn near impossible to get out of.

yea i do it a lot too especialy in the spit16 i have to pull flaps up full oposite rudder alieron forward on stick and fluctuate the throttle to get out of em, really i just jerk teh stick aruond and hope it works cause its hard to get out of that when your tail down, i may have 50% sucess rate lol

[crockett]

Would it maybe be a corkscrew dive? Quite a few leafs tend to spin down in a corkscrew as they float to the ground. Could he not just be in a corkscrew dive to keep control of the aircraft speed?  I do this type of move in the K4 quite often now, it lets me bleed off speed at a controlled rate with my rudder and I can end up on a lower cons six at a manageable speed to take that all important tatter shot.

It also has the affect of not giving away your true angle of attack, because you aren't diving right in on the con. I dunno if this dive has a name, it's just something I picked up on my own and seems to work but seems like "falling Leaf" would be an appropriate name for it.

[EskimoJoe]

LOL the falling leaf, not sure if it's the same maneuver but it happens A LOT when I'm in a spitfire.  It's just a nasty stall that happens when you have flaps down, low speed and pull too much AOA and add a little rudder it falls like a leaf and is damn near impossible to get out of.

I'm positive that is actually a flat spin.

[EskimoJoe]

Would it maybe be a corkscrew dive? Quite a few leafs tend to spin down in a corkscrew as they float to the ground. Could he not just be in a corkscrew dive to keep control of the aircraft speed?  I do this type of move in the K4 quite often now, it lets me bleed off speed at a controlled rate with my rudder and I can end up on a lower cons six at a manageable speed to take that all important tatter shot.

It also has the affect of not giving away your true angle of attack, because you aren't diving right in on the con. I dunno if this dive has a name, it's just something I picked up on my own and seems to work but seems like "falling Leaf" would be an appropriate name for it.

I'm thinking it might be more of a back/forth movement, like a leaf falling or a ship in the water. Try the picture with your hand to your elbow, starting vertical. Hand up top, then curving so hand is on bottom, then repeating.

[EskimoJoe]

Whoops