STALLS & SLOW FLIGHT

Student pilots are introduced to two important manoeuvres that are repeated countless times throughout the rest of their flight training. Both of which are immensely important skills to master.

SLOW FLIGHT and STALLS not only prepare student pilots for the task of learning how to land, but further teaches just how versatile the aircraft is and how to handle an inadvertent foray into the lower end of the performance arena.

THE STALL

The stall, in aerodynamic terms, means that the wing has stopped producing lift because it has exceeded its critical alpha. In other words, as we slow down we must raise the nose to sustain the lift necessary to maintain an altitude at a given airspeed.

Raising the nose increases alpha. As alpha gets too high the wing can no longer produce lift because of the previously smooth flow of air flowing over the wings gets disrupted and becomes turbulent. The wing ‘stops flying’ and the nose drops consequently.

SLOW FLIGHT

Slow flight is a precursor to stall training and serves two purposes;

1. To get familiar with flight characteristics of the aircraft in its low speed regime.
2. Learning to recognise when the aircraft is close to the onset of stall.

Landings are a form of slow flight and thus pilots should be comfortable with it. Flight controls get mushy, sound changes and the panel obscures the view out of the window.

At minimum controllable speed, our stall horn may make noise and stall light illuminate, and our aircraft may occasionally burble. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate how to recognise an imminent stall.

Recognising the onset of an imminent stall before it occurs is just as important as Stall Recovery Techniques. At low altitudes this is critical, and so part of the training is to execute a stall recovery with an absolute minimal loss of altitude, so as to simulate a departure stall in which student pilot will apply full throttle and pitch up until stall occurs.

This scenario is insisted on as it could likely occur when we aim to clear an obstacle at the end of the runway after takeoff. A great example of the danger of this scenario can be seen in the movie, ‘American Made’, starring Tom Cruise.

Slow flight and stall training teach students to recognise the potential danger and how to recover from it safely. Just as a golfer must practice getting out of sand traps, students must practice getting out of both imminent and actual stalls, and like the golfer, it’s important to keep the skills sharp with regular practice.