Flight Training - June 2013 - 30

IN THE LANDING CONFIGURATION, IT IS EASY TO CREEP UP ON THE STALL AND
STILL BE FLYING THE AIRPLANE IN WHAT APPEARS TO BE A MORE-OR-LESS
'NORMAL' ATITUDE—WHICH IS TO SAY, IT'S NEARLY LEVEL.
Keep increasing back-pressure and notice how
the nose isn’t really coming up much at all. The
speed, however, keeps going down. In all probability, you’ll get a stall buffet before the nose comes up
to the horizon. Now, if you’re feeling adventurous,
make a coordinated roll (rudder and aileron) into a
30-degree bank, and add back-pressure to hold the
nose attitude. Notice how, in that condition, most
airplanes quietly decide to quit flying. It happens very
gently without a lot of fanfare.
The point to this rather benign exercise is to see
that in the landing configuration, it is easy to creep up
on the stall and still have the airplane in what appears
to be a more-or-less “normal” attitude—which is to
say, it’s nearly level. Because of the high-angle manner
in which we usually practice stalls, we’ve become so
used to stalls being associated with extreme attitudes
that we don’t recognize when we’re about to stall in
what appears to be a very normal nose attitude.
The way to keep these sneaky little stalls from happening is twofold: First, develop a conscious habit of
monitoring the relationship of the nose to the horizon
in a normal approach situation, which is flaps down
and power off (if in a power-off approach). Each time
we change the configuration and the power setting in
the approach, we should note how much space there
is between the nose and the horizon; it will vary with
each speed and configuration change. Then, once stabilized on a speed, resolve not to let that nose attitude
change; further fine-tune it by making the airspeed
indicator part of the visual scan.
A never-ending scan is vitally important on
approach: Our eyes will be constantly on the move,
taking in a series of factors all at the same time. These
include ground track; glideslope, as represented by
the position and trend of the runway numbers in the
windshield (up, down, or stationary); the attitude of
the nose in relationship to the horizon; the airspeed;
the power setting (assuming a power approach); and
finally, monitoring the pressure on our rear end (left
or right) and what the skid ball is saying about what
we are feeling. The primary focus is in the windshield, because speed changes happen there first, as
do glideslope changes.
FOCUSING ON YAW. So, if we eliminate the “stall”
part of stall/spin, we’ve essentially eliminated the
spin, and only the yaw factor remains to be mastered.
Yaw, as represented by what the skid ball is telling
us, means that the airplane is crooked. In a glide,
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a part of that yaw will be nothing more than the
ever-present P-factor (assuming your airplane has
a propeller). So, while power-off, a little left rudder
(in U.S. airplanes) usually is called for to keep the
ball centered. But that’s not a big problem. What can
be a big problem is that people forget the ball can be
moved around by the ailerons just as easily as it can
by the rudders.
When in flight in the practice area, step on the
rudder. Predictably, the ball runs away from the
foot that’s down. Now, with feet flat on the floor,
crank in a bunch of aileron and you’ll notice you
can push the ball off center with aileron just as
easily as you can the rudder. Then, slow down the
airplane to approach speed and repeat the last two
movements.
Note that when you’re slower and you step on
the rudder, the airplane yaws more or less the same
as before—but the ailerons seem to be able to move
the ball much more easily at approach speed than in
cruise. That’s because at the higher angles of attack
associated with a slower speed, the adverse yaw is
greater. It takes a lot of yaw to spin an airplane, and
it is the unknowing crossed-up application of both
rudder and aileron that can generate much more
yaw than either control can generate by itself. And
that’s what happens in a stall/spin accident. Both
controls contribute to the required yaw.
SET-UP FOR A STALL/SPIN. Stall/spin accidents
generally happen when the airplane is on base and
the pilot is a little late initiating the base-to-final
turn. Or the wind is behind him, pushing him. Either
way, the pilot overshoots final and cranks in a lot of
bank in an effort to make the turn. Things are OK to
this point.
Then a light bulb goes on in the pilot’s head that
says he shouldn’t have a high bank angle that close
to the ground. So, he tries to hold a moderate bank
angle, but finds it’s not enough to make it around the
corner onto final. As a result, the pilot applies a little
inside rudder to encourage the nose around onto
final. But as he does that, the bank tries to increase.
In fact, to hold the bank stable, the pilot must apply
aileron to the outside of the turn. So there he is with
left (inside) rudder and right (outside) aileron, in a
fairly steep bank.
He’s now in a bad situation. The rudder he’s holding to the inside of the turn is driving the ball to the
right (assuming a left turn). The aileron he is holding

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Flight Training - June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - June 2013