Stalls Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Understanding what actually kills general aviation pilots

Paul Bertorelli has written a lengthy post for AVwebinsider with a must see graphic illustrating general aviation fatal accidents in 2010. In the graphic, the numbers to the right of the circles represent the accident rate per 100,000 flight hours that each category represents with the circles representing the relative size of the risk.

Paul does note that the categories are his own and he intentionally painted them with a broad brush in order for the risks to stand in sharper relief. He also pointed out that you will be exposed to stalls, loss of control and running out of fuel while icing and convective events are more rare as many pilots don’t fly in conditions where they can happen.

However and from looking at the graphic, Paul drew the conclusion that general aviation pilots tend to have an inverted understanding of risk and what’s most likely going to kill them. For example: He commented that general aviation pilots will spend considerable amounts of money on traffic systems to mitigate a midair collision – one of the smallest risks a pilot faces.

On the other hand, stalls along with engine failure or fuel exhaustion are more common causes of accidents. Paul then commented that he would like to see a basic understanding of stalls de-linked from airspeed and instead more strongly associated with the angle of attack. He also added that if general aviation pilots had a real sense of what the risk of a stall actually is, they might be more inclined to spend money on an angle-of-attack indicator first or have recurrent stall awareness training before spending money on a midair indicator.

At the end of the article, Paul concluded that general aviation pilots need to worry less about midairs, thunderstorms and icing and worry more about simply controlling the aircraft. After all:

If you combine the stall accidents with what appear to be basic loss of control accidents—in IMC or not—you account for nearly half of all fatal accidents. That’s a big number and plenty to chew on to worry about things that might kill you and less about things that won’t.

In other words and before you go out and make a big purchase for your aircraft, take a look at Paul’s graphic and article – which has already attracted a large number of comments.

Cool aviation marketing video (that’s also a good primer on spins)

Hat tip to Scott Spangler of the JetWhine blog for mentioning this cool aviation marketing video about the Icon Aircraft A5 that’s also a good primer on spins. The reason the video grabbed Scott’s attention and also should grab yours as well is that it gives a concise demonstration about what makes an aircraft stall without viewers needing a degree in aeronautical engineering to understand what they are talking about. Specifically, the video includes the side-by-side results of stalling an A5 verses a Cessna 150 as well as comparing the A5’s stall descent rate with a skydiver under canopy.

Of course, the video is intended to help market the Icon Aircraft A5 as a light-sport aircraft alternative to Cessna and other general aviation aircraft used as training aircraft. By turning it educational about stalls without overwhelming users with technical jargon, the video is also a very clever piece of aviation marketing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsQcfzNWJWc&w=480]

The Air France 447 tragedy and the myth of the un-stallable airplane

Ron Rapp of the the House of Rapp blog has noted an extensive article in Popular Mechanics about Air France 447’s flight recorder transcripts that shed some light on what really happened in the cockpit as the aircraft plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Brazil (also check out our post from last June: Air France 447 and pilot error: More questions than answers). Apparently, there was chaos and confusion in the cockpit and the Popular Mechanics article does a great job of showing this by reprinting various excerpts from the transcripts and then analyzing them.

Meanwhile, Ron noted similarities between the Air France 447 crash and the Colgan Air 3407 crash where the aircraft had stalled and the captain did not understand what was going on as he physically held the aircraft into a deadly deep stall all the way to impact. He also pointed out that these mistakes happened because:

…they did not believe the airplane could be stalled at all.
That’s on par with believing in the tooth fairy…
Ah, the myth of the un-stallable airplane! Is this what Airbus, airlines, and the FAA are allowing instructors to teach pilots?

Ron then went into some detail about stalls, aerodynamics and the fact that a stall can happen at any speed (along with computer and equipment failures) if the conditions are right – such as the thunderstorm Air France 447 flew right into. Moreover, Ron pointed out that in his experience, stalls are poorly understood by a majority of pilots – all the more reason to read both the Popular Mechanics article about the Air France 447 tragedy along with Ron’s further analysis of it.

Is traditional stall training a waste of time?

Air Facts magazine has recently posted an interesting question for readers regarding stall training that has already attracted nearly 60 comments. Specifically, Air Facts magazine asked:

Question: Most inadvertent stalls that result in serious accidents occur at an altitude too low for a recovery. Do you think this means that practicing stalls at altitude is a waste of time?

Student pilot Joseph Chambers responded by writing that he thinks stall training is worth it because it gets future pilots out of their comfort zone and lets them know whether they can calmly react when a flight goes outside of the normal flight parameters. He also added that you do not know how you will react the first time in a stall as it will be “quite a ride” if you were not “raised on airplanes.”

ConcernedPilot posted that if a student pilot is learning how to fly an aircraft but is never taught the full capabilities of an aircraft, he or she is being set up for failure because flying will never be an ideal situation every time. Moreover, ConcernedPilot noted that in more advanced flying situations such as bush flying, a pilot will often need to fly right at stall speed.

However, CFIChuck was one reader who disagreed with much of the prevailing wisdom that other commenters had posted. Specifically, he wrote that he thought that stall training is a hold-over from the World War II mindset and it isn’t worth practicing. CFIChuck pointed out that:

We don’t practice crash landing, after all–we simply learn not to do it. Same for stalls–there is no reason to ever stall, period, and practicing it is just checking the box. If you ever stall for real, it’s too late, you won’t recover.

He did add that its also important to learn what types of flying scenarios will make you more susceptible to a stall and how to avoid them but he feels it’s a bad investment to go up to 3,000 feet for “feeling the break.”

Hence, we want to ask you our readers what you think: Is stall training a waste of time? Moreover, are stalls something that every pilot needs to experience in the cockpit rather than just learn about in the classroom?

Conquering the fear of stalling

Pilots and student pilots especially are usually fairly nervous or fearful about stalls and stall training. Hence, a recent video put together by Jason Schappert for his MzeroA.com site is well worth watching as he noted that stalls really aren’t that scary. In the video, Jason shows you how to practice stalls in order to practice recoveries plus he shows you how to practice a power on or departure stall and a power off or landing stall.

In addition, Jason’s post has already attracted more than 30 comments or Twits about how to practice stalls plus comments from readers who mention their own personal stories and experiences involving stalls or stall training. These comments are also well worth reading.

How to conquer your fear of stalling

Recently, Sophie, a student pilot based in Australia, asked a great question on the Ask a Flight Instructor website about how to overcome her fears about stalling. She further noted that:

I more than dislike the negative G feeling that your body experiences and do not feel comfortable in the unusual attitude. My struggle to deal with the above two issues leave me with little confidence to maintain control of the aircraft – especially when solo….

…I find that people just brush it off as me being an emotional female. I am very strong in mind and know i can do them (if ever i am in an emergency) – however the fear is crippling.
Do you have any ideas on how I can combat this fear?????

Commenter Brian suggested that she should start small and that she should:

Spend a day, or a few days, or every flight do at least one, doing nose overs. In other words, pitch up to establish a shallow climb (~10-20 degrees) and then as speed slows down push forward to 10-20 nose low.

He further added that the goal is to leave your seat and then settle back into it and the best way to do this is to use the control yoke to control how much you do or don’t leave your seat. Moreover, he added that it might be a good idea to watch someone do a series of stalls in order to see exactly what is happening to the aircraft during such a maneuver as this can help to ease one’s mind.

Meanwhile, commenter Tony Harrison mentioned that he used to have the same exact fear but then he noted that:

The way I got around it was to slowly sneak up on stalls, by that I mean, start setting yourself up for a stall, but recover before coming close. Next time, take it slightly further. Slightly. Over the course of an hour perform a number of stalls progressively getting closer to a full stall. Even as the buffet comes in, relax the control pressure and just let the aircraft settle – don’t go for the big push over, just relax the pressure and pour on the power.

Hence, we want to ask you our readers: How did you overcome any fears of stalling? Is there any other advice that you would give pilots like Sophie? Feel free to post your comments below.