Aircraft Tailplane Stalls

We dont usually take requests, but a reader wrote recently to ask us about tailplane stalls, those involving the horizontal portion of an airplanes tail. Its been a while since we covered them in-depth, so nows a good time to revisit that topic. Our reader wrote: The middle of summer when it is 90 degrees outside is not when most pilots think about tailplane icing but I would like to see an article about the aerodynamics of recovery from a tailplane stall and I know you need lead time to do that.

A Bartlett

Monday, July 18, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Tailplane stalls, particularly ice-contaminated tailplane stalls (ICTS), occur when the horizontal tail exceeds its critical angle of attack, often causing a nose-down tendency and light pitch controls.
The tailplane functions aerodynamically "upside down" compared to the main wing, meaning pitching the aircraft's nose up *decreases* the tailplane's angle of attack.
Therefore, the counter-intuitive recovery for an ICTS is to **pull back on the pitch control** (yoke/stick) to reduce the tailplane's angle of attack, along with reducing power and retracting any recently deployed flaps.

See a mistake? Contact us.

We don’t usually take requests, but a reader wrote recently to ask us about tailplane stalls, those involving the horizontal portion of an airplane’s tail. It’s been a while since we covered them in-depth, so now’s a good time to revisit that topic. Our reader wrote: “The middle of summer when it is 90 degrees outside is not when most pilots think about tailplane icing but I would like to see an article about the aerodynamics of recovery from a tailplane stall and I know you need lead time to do that.

“The FAA guidance, as I understand it, is to pull back on the stick/yoke to recover from a tailplane stall. That seems wrong to me, but I have not been able to find an instructor who can explain the aerodynamics of how that recovery works…. I am sure the FAA is correct since they have people a lot smarter than me in aerodynamics. I am obviously missing something so could you please find someone who understands the aerodynamics of tailplane stall recovery and have them write an article on the subject in time for winter?”