Brian & Rick,
I talked to Catherine about snap rolls several years ago. Entry speed is more important than most pilots realize. She mentioned Bill K. didn’t let other pilots snap roll Orville. Catherine, apparently, runs the Vn diagram prior to snap rolling Wilbur. She recently wrote a great AOPA article about it. When looking for Aerobats several years ago, I fount two vertical stabilizers which weren’t vertical. Unfortunately, one was a nice A152 with a fresh SparrowHawk mod done by LyCon Visalia, CA. (Not the recently posted A152) This is what can happen entering a snap roll with too much airspeed. I also know of one that had the entire empennage corkscrewed 15* and the tail cone was oil canned from a really botched snap roll. (Long Story, bad decisions, both pilots walked away. Aerobat totaled.)
The airplane otherwise is very difficult to break. But I’d stand 25’ off the nose and make sure the vertical is vertical.
Brian & Catherine, Input?
