Power Curve Blues

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, June 03, 2014 at 08:22 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The "backside of the power curve" is a hazardous flight regime where induced drag increases sharply, demanding significantly more power to maintain airspeed and altitude.
Venturing into this region during approach is particularly dangerous, as sink rate dramatically increases and pulling back the yoke only exacerbates the problem, requiring substantial power to recover.
To ensure safety, pilots must avoid the backside of the power curve by maintaining proper airspeed on approach, and if already on the backside, lower the nose and add power (with sufficient altitude).
Pilots should understand their aircraft's power curve by practicing at a safe altitude to identify when more power is needed to fly slower while maintaining altitude.

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Every airplane has a power curve. And every power curve has a backside. It’s an area of the performance envelope in which induced drag rises dramatically, necessitating considerably more power to maintain a given airspeed and altitude.

Venturing into this “region of reverse command” on approach can be particularly hazardous because as you “drag it in” on final your sink rate will begin to increase precipitously unless you pour in the power. Pulling back on the yoke will only exacerbate the problem, and at some point you might be amazed at how much power is required just to keep you from falling out of the sky.