AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2022 - 83

RUDDER & WRENCH
I ask how one recovers from a stall during
ground sessions, I often hear, " Add
full power and pitch to the horizon. " Got
it. Well, what happens if you find the airplane
in a stalled condition, but the nose
is already below the horizon? With alarming
regularity, the candidate pauses and
responds, " Full power and pull back on the
stick to bring the nose up to the horizon. "
I've even had CFI candidates explain that
the airplane wings cannot be stalled with
the nose below the horizon. These are the
same candidates who have received, but
clearly not earned, a spin endorsement that
attests to their instructional knowledge of
stalls and spins.
Of course, pitch attitude and angle of
attack are two very different things.
As I wrote up a notice of disapproval
for one practical exam candidate who confused
the two, I invited his instructor to
join us for the discussion. To my amazement,
the instructor told me that I had it
wrong. He claimed that, " When we practice
stalls up high, we push forward on the
stick to bring the nose toward the horizon.
But in the pattern, it's important to recover
only by applying power-pushing forward
on the yoke would only make the airplane
nose into the ground. " It hit home that in
this instructor-student relationship, the
blind was leading the blind.
One of the best demonstrations that
an aircraft really can stall at any attitude
involves looping an aircraft certificated
in the acrobatic category. During a loop,
a pilot experiences every pitch attitude
of which an airplane is capable but, at no
point in a properly performed loop do the
wings stall. This assumes that the pilot
employs proper back-pressure on the stick
during the maneuver. If the pilot miscalculates
an appropriate starting altitude and
finds himself too low on the back side of
the loop, he could find himself in a no-win
situation: pull back too hard and the wings
will stall but not hard enough and the airplane
will fly into the ground.
But sometimes a pilot with sufficient
altitude can pull on the stick too hard
because she simply overestimates the necessary
back-pressure. I was such a pilot
when Seattle instructor Bruce Williams
shared aerobatics with me in his Extra
300L, the one he so generously donated
recently to the AOPA Air Safety Institute.
I arrived for our flight armed with the loop
muscle memory I recalled from my Cessna
152 Aerobat, Wilbur. On the back side of
the maneuver (upside-down, nose low), I
used a similar back-pressure I remembered
from Wilbur, and it was just too much for
the Extra. While Wilbur is certificated in
the acrobatic category and stressed for
aerobatics, the Extra is a more nimble aerobatic
performer, so the control pressures
are very subtle. I'm not sure which was
more obvious-the wings shuddering with
displeasure or Williams's voice expressing
his in my headset. But after I relaxed some
back-pressure, quiet returned and we completed
the loop nicely.
Many of the stalls we practice and
®
demonstrate on a practical exam feature
the nose pulled high above the horizon
and, when the stall break occurs, pushing
the nose to the horizon is typically enough
for the recovery. Such practice is valuable
as the stall one might encounter as part of
a go-around. But that practice is just not
enough. The notorious base-to-final stall
usually occurs with the nose below the
horizon and, at the stall, back-pressure
on the yoke combined with opposite aileron
deflection only seals the fate of the
pilot and passengers by sending the airplane
into a spin with insufficient altitude
for recovery. You might think that you'd
never find yourself in such a situation, but
folks do many times each year. If we are
distracted, nervous, or overloaded, any one
of us can find ourselves oblivious to stall
warning indications.
The moral of the story is that the pitch
attitude of the airplane doesn't affect
the recovery when it comes to stalls. If
you've not experienced stalling an airplane
in a nose-low attitude, you owe it to
yourself and your passengers to seek out
comprehensive stall training. No matter
what the aircraft pitch attitude, you'll
learn to resist any temptation to deflect
the ailerons and that pushing forward on
the yoke or stick is the key to recovery.
Cather ine Cavagnaro
owns Ace
Aerobatic School in Sewanee, Tennessee
(aceaerobaticschool.com) and is a professor
of mathematics at Sewanee: The
University of the South.
aceaerobaticschool.com
AOPA PILOT / August 2022
83
SWITCH
AND
SAVE
4%
Cash Back1
on Select
AOPA Purchases
CASH BACK1
APPLIED AS STATEMENT CREDIT.
QUARTERLY BONUS POINT CAP OF 2,500 POINTS*
Switch today to the AOPA
World Mastercard®, and stop
paying too much on your
aviation purchases.
Visit
AOPA.org/creditcard
to learn more
*Certain points and purchase restrictions apply; see full Rewards
Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items provided
through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards
and travel may vary.
http://www.AOPA.org/creditcard http://www.AOPA.org/creditcard http://www.aceaerobaticschool.com http://www.aceaerobaticschool.com
AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2022
