Stall?

Today, in addition to slow flight, steep turns (ugh), I learned stalls. Stalls are when the airplane exceeds the maximum angle of attack (AOA). When this happens, the airplane looses lift and the nose will pitch down. The signs that stalls are imminent are sluggish controls (mushy - the plane will not quickly respond to control inputs), buffeting or a vibration, and the stall warning horn will be blaring in your ears. The idea is to recognize these warnings before the plane actually stalls.

There are two types of stalls that we are taught - power-on and power-off stalls. First, we learned a power-on stall. A power-on stall is intended to simulate a stall on takeoff. We set up for this maneuver by pitching for about 70kts with 10 degrees of flaps (somewhere around the rotation speed), apply full power, and full back pressure. The whole time you are preparing for a stall, you must keep the plane coordinated with rudder inputs. Failure to do this will cause one wing to stall before the other and will likely produce a spin. Spins are very dangerous and at low altitudes are usually unrecoverable. Once the airplane pitches forward (the stall breaks), you gain airspeed, take out the flaps, and resume straight and level flight.

Power-off stalls are intended to simulate a stall on landing. These are performed by pitching the plane for about 60kts in a landing configuration (full flaps). Then power is reduced to idle while maintaining back pressure on the yoke. Eventually, the plane loses lift and will stall. Once the stall breaks, we apply full power and pitch nose down, airspeed and lift is gained, the flaps are slowly taken out and recovery is complete. Easy.

It took a few of these until I was comfortable doing them. For the practical test, you have to perform the stall with "minimum altitude loss" - my instructor suggests 200 feet or less. Right.

Back to the airport to practice some more landings. Getting better - probably won't need Advil after these...

Flight time: 1.9

Total time: 9.7