OT: Aviation Question

[T2Kplus10]

You don't do stall training in commercial aircraft. The simulator training programs get hammered by the NTSB with every significant incident.

Seriously - the guys flying AF447 made a stunning sequence of errors. Their inability to recognize what was happening to the aircraft is a pristine indictment of their training. All the basic indications of airframe stall were right there in the cockpit with them. They rode that thing into the ocean.

Didn't the pilots know they were falling from the sky, for what, a few minutes? And didn't the freaking stall warning sound a few times? AF447 is an amazing case study of WTF.

 

[RutgersRaRa]

To get a private pilot certificate power off and power on stalls are required. They are also required prior to becoming a solo student pilot. See part 61.87.

If a CFI isn't constantly discussing stall awareness (i.e., maintaining appropriate speeds) and recovery, it is probably time to get a new CFI.

I relied on my instructor, and wasn't about to challenge him on the stall requirements, especially after his description of it being the cause of throwing up, crashing, and other maladies.

 

[RU4Real]

I relied on my instructor, and wasn't about to challenge him on the stall requirements, especially after his description of it being the cause of throwing up, crashing, and other maladies.

Really?

I don't think I ever saw anyone throw up from stall training in a small Cessna. The feeling is almost exactly like cresting the very first hill on any roller coaster. You're going up, slower and slower... the nose tilts down... you fall a bit. When you get really good at recovery, you fall less than 20'.

As far as crashing - true story: There has never been a wing spar failure on a strutted high-wing Cessna. Not one.

 

[RutgersRaRa]

Really?

I don't think I ever saw anyone throw up from stall training in a small Cessna. The feeling is almost exactly like cresting the very first hill on any roller coaster. You're going up, slower and slower... the nose tilts down... you fall a bit. When you get really good at recovery, you fall less than 20'.

As far as crashing - true story: There has never been a wing spar failure on a strutted high-wing Cessna. Not one.

I can't verify the accuracy of what he told me, so I took it at face value. But since most students' "times" before recovery is/was longer than 20', perhaps that's what he was referring to. As for the crash statistics, I also took his generalization at face value for the simple reason that he knew how to take off and land and I didn't.

 

[RUforester72]

It's recognizable and noteworthy, I think, that the enjoyment of such things is inversely proportional to the size of the airplane. I used to love fooling around in 152s. Skyhawks, not so much. A friend of mine had a 182 that I used to fly from time to time and it was way too ponderous for anything other than cruising.

Agree. Some of my most memorable flights were "low and slow"!