Stalls and Spins

I have written several posts where I discuss practicing a stall.  A stall is cause by the separation of airflow from the wing’s upper surface.   Level flight requires smooth airflow above and below the wings.  Of course you have to be able to ascend and descend smoothly so the wings are designed to take some movement up/down using the pitch of the plane.  Yet if the pilot increases the angle of the wing (called: angle of attach) too much the airflow will be broken.

The stall warning will go off and, since there is minimal wind going over the wing, the ailerons (the main flight controls) will have little effect on the plane making the plane difficult to control.  While both wings are being stalled, normally one wing will be stalled more than the other, thus cause the plane to dip to one side or the other.  The outcome is one wing then gets a lot of airflow over it while the other stalls even more.  If the pilot fails to recover from the stall at this point, the plane will likely continue into a spin.  It is the spin that I described as very dramatic in a prior post.

Spins are dangerous and may be one of the most complex of all flight maneuvers.  It can be very disorienting and difficult to recover from.  Plus, hopefully you are at a high altitude, as you can lose up to 6,000 feet per minute in a spin.  A private pilot is not required to demonstrate spins but should know how to recover from them.

The good news is that a stall is very easy to identify and recover from.  The quickest is solution is to decrease the nose of the plane (angle of attack of the wing) to regain proper airflow over the wing.  Adjustments with the rudders or additional thrust may help as well.



Recovery from a spin, on the other hand, is more complex.  The mnemonic technique is PARE.

·         P = Power off.  If the plane is pointed towards the ground.  You don’t want additional thrust getting to there sooner.

·         A = Ailerons should be natural.  You don’t want them to encourage the spin.  Also flaps up.

·         R = Full rudder in the opposite direction of the spin.  The turn coordinator can help you determine which way the plane is spinning.

·         E = Elevator to neutral

This would hopefully stop the spin and then the pilot can power up, rudder neutral and elevator up, being careful not to fall back into another stall/spin.

I spend a lot of time in the air simulating stalls and practicing recovery from them.  The reason is that unintentional stalls are most likely to happen upon take offs and landings.  With just a few hundred feet in the air, a pilot has to act quickly to recover from them.