Why Do We Stall?

Fixed-wing pilots start learning stall recognition and avoidance during pre-solo training. The private and sport pilot checkrides require recovering from developed stalls with minimal loss of altitude, and stall and spin awareness are (or at least should be) refreshed during flight reviews for the duration of ones flying career. But unintended stalls still put dozens of airplanes into the ground every year. Is it possible that stall training as currently practiced isnt as effective as it might be?

David Jack Kenny

Monday, May 21, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Current stall training is often inadequate as it fails to simulate real-world, low-altitude, uncoordinated scenarios that lead to most fatal accidents, and inconsistent training standards can instill poor habits.
Unintended stalls are exceptionally dangerous, with nearly half proving fatal, and frequently occur in the traffic pattern during personal or training flights, with very low survivability at low altitudes.
To enhance safety, stall training should shift focus to early recognition and avoidance, incorporate diverse stall types (e.g., accelerated, trim stalls), and promote a dynamic understanding of Angle of Attack (AoA) in varied flight conditions.

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Fixed-wing pilots start learning stall recognition and avoidance during pre-solo training. The private and sport pilot checkrides require recovering from developed stalls with minimal loss of altitude, and stall and spin awareness are (or at least should be) refreshed during flight reviews for the duration of one’s flying career. But unintended stalls still put dozens of airplanes into the ground every year. Is it possible that stall training as currently practiced isn’t as effective as it might be?

If so, there are reasons. Chief among them is that most of the situations that lead to accidents—close to the ground and often uncoordinated—can’t be duplicated in the airplane with a reasonable margin of safety, and existing light-airplane simulators don’t achieve convincing visual or kinesthetic fidelity. (Try putting one into a spin.) Instead, we practice at altitude. Having the cushion needed to recover from botched initial efforts eases the alarm that accompanies real-world excursions.