AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2015 - 20

SAFETY PILOT

Losing it

BY BRUCE LANDSBERG

Can we just quit stalling around?

BRUCE LANDSBERG

is the former
president of the
AOPA Foundation
and now serves as
an advisor to the
Air Safety Institute.

20 | AOPA PILOT May 2015

IT'S ALWAYS A BAD THING when we lose it-whatever
"it" may be. In flying, loss of control (LOC) might lead
to the ultimate calamity-the loss of life. The NTSB put
LOC on its top-10 list for 2015. On average, there are two
fatal LOC accidents per week. That covers everything
from stalling to VFR into IMC. Let's leave weather out
of this and just quit stalling around. "Boring," you say-
it's so basic. Any fool knows what a stall is and how to
avoid it, right? Not so fast.
Only about two percent of stall-related accidents
occurred on training flights. The accepted procedure
is to climb to a safe altitude, clear the area, and gently
ease up to the edge of the flight envelope. Everybody
is waiting, watching, and ready to recover either at the
first indication or right after the break. What's missing
is the surprise and distraction that makes real-world
stalls so pervasive and potentially deadly.
The granddaddy of all stall accidents was Air France
447, an Airbus A330 that plunged more than 30,000
feet into the South Atlantic Ocean after the pitot tubes
froze up. The flight data computer went haywire and the
automatic envelope protection ceased to function. The
bewildered crew was unable to sort things out.
Colgan 3407, a Bombardier Q400 on autopilot, leveled at the final approach fix altitude near Buffalo, New
York. At reduced power the autopilot, in altitude hold
mode, performed as programmed and gradually commanded the aircraft into an approach to a stall. The
surprised crew finished the job.
Finally, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 flying into
San Francisco on autopilot fell short of the runway.
The crew may have misprogrammed the autothrottles
and apparently failed to recognize the stall as the aircraft slowed.
The stall epidemic in the airlines is a relatively new
phenomenon, but it's old news in GA. Over the past
decade more than 70 percent of stall-related accidents
occurred in the traffic pattern. The aircraft is closer to
the edge of the flight envelope and very close to the
ground. It's a high-workload environment coupled with
multiple distractions. Here are two popular scenarios:
Base-to-final turn-Two situations should have you
on the edge of the seat and spring-loaded to roll wings
level, add massive amounts of power smoothly, and go
around: 1) A tailwind on base leg-or just a sloppy turn-
may lead to an overshoot and a strong desire to wrack it
around to get back to the extended runway centerline.

We know the drill but rather than thinking about stalling, we're more focused on alignment and bank angle.
Bank angle is important but it's angle of attack that bites.
2) A slower aircraft is ahead and he's really pokey. He
missed the first turnoff and now he's blocking your runway! Maybe if you slow down and increase the S-turn
this will work. Really? The other pilot's speed or position is irrelevant when it impacts your minimum control
speed. Ultimately, the physics won't work regardless of
the miscreant's airmanship and ancestry. Fly the pattern
and final approach on your terms, not the other guy's.
On takeoff, the aircraft is close to a stall. During the
initial climb, nail the appropriate airspeed for weight
and wind conditions to get as high as possible as quickly
as possible. Anticipate a massive power failure at the
worst possible time and you'll be at least somewhat prepared. Engines almost always do what we ask, but don't
take that for granted. It's the next takeoff that's important; not the past several 100 when everything worked.
Use all the runway-the pavement behind the aircraft is
worthless in the event of a takeoff emergency.
The improbable turn-a turn back toward the
departure runway is unlikely to be successful in a singleengine aircraft. It's a reaction that needs to be carefully
planned and practiced. There's plenty of anecdotal
evidence that practicing the improbable turn during
takeoff may be more deadly than actual engine failure events, so choose your training environment and
instructor very carefully. In all cases, on takeoff, if an
engine quits-whether continuing mostly straight or
returning-the first action is to lower the nose about 10
to 15 degrees, quickly.
The angle is the thing, not speed or attitude. When
in doubt unload the wing. Wings choke from lack of air
and they need to breathe, just like us. The aircraft has
to be to pointed close to where it is actually going, not
where you may think it's going. Stalls will largely disappear if pilots can get this visualization straight. AOA
indicators will help-try one!
I've only addressed a few LOC items here but the
topic will be discussed at EAA AirVenture, at several
of the AOPA Fly-In events, and during the Air Safety
Institute fall seminar series. There also are several
online programs offered by ASI. It's so basic, not really
intuitive, and very important.
AOPA
WEB www.airsafetyinstitute.org

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2015