Traffic patterns aren’t that hard: Fly a rectangle. One side is the downwind; one side has the final approach and departure paths. Simple, right? Not really. One of the problems is all those turns we have to make align the airplane with the runway or the downwind. And some of those turns are close to the ground, at relatively low speeds and are poorly executed. Sadly, the results of steep turns to final—especially when overshooting the runway’s extended centerline—can be fatal.
That’s the classic set-up for a cross-controlled stall, one in which the airplane is overbanked and the pilot then adds opposite aileron to counter while maintaining rudder in the direction of the bank. Since they can happen quickly, stall warning systems and the wing’s natural burble may not give adequate notice of what’s about to happen. At altitude, cross-controlled stalls are easily recovered, but there often isn’t enough air under us to pull it off in the pattern. So the idea is to prevent them.
