It's fairly well known that the L-2s were grounded for a time by the USAAF after some stall/spin accidents. Now having flown an L-2 myself, I don't think I've ever gotten close to a spin, but do any of the other pilots on the board have an opinion?

Ryan

Ryan,
I've had my L-2 for 6 years. They are extremely docile airplanes. The issues the Army had were a series of fatal crashes while landing. Specifically while making circling approaches and the pilots getting too slow and stalling while in turns. The L-2 stalls abruptly and, if banked over, wants to go onto its back. I've tried this a few times at altitude.

The L-2 has very little washout compared to a L3- or L-4 so is a little less well behaved when stalling. The trade-off is that an L-2 will walk away from it's L-bird siblings. Cruise is about 15 mph faster.

Flown properly, the L-2 offers little in the way of surprises. Before stalling there is plenty of warning. The plane wants a lot of aft stick, there's a bit of buffetting and the controls get very mushy. Finally it gets eerily silent in the cabin. At this point you're probably about 1mph away from stalling.

That just about jives with what I've experienced. I think it's more a matter of training. Is suspect that the Army (or the instructors weren't training to the aircraft, but to the techniques and that, properly used, the L-2 could've been even better than the L-4 in combat.

Ryan

As much as it pains me to admit it, the low-speed handling of the Cub likely did make it better suited for the needs of the Army ground forces although I would argue that the advent of the L-2M with spoilers negated any Cub advantage. With spoilers deployed, the L-2 can fly amazingly steep approaches. Landing roll is nearly non-existent.

Combat effectiveness of L-birds probably wouldn't see much difference between them. They're all essentially the same -- just variations on a theme. Take-off; orbit, observe and report; land.

I think the L-2 was done in by instructors/students hopping from one aircraft to another and believing they all handled the same. Pity as I think the L-2 is the better of the three.