Obviously, this training scenario is somewhat exaggerated, but don't underestimate the psychological aspects of instructing, especially with stalls. In primary training, the anxiety level associated with stalls can easily rival that of learning to land.
Because students don't learn well when they are nervous, our first job is to reduce our student's anxiety. We can do this by understanding its causes. For example, an incomplete or superficial knowledge of stalls can make a student anxious. Or, anxiety might stem from some common apprehensions about stalls, such as the student's ability to control the aircraft during the stall and recovery. Some students fear the actual physical sensations they feel during the stall.
On The Ground
If a student is anxious about stalls, it's our job to find out the cause and overcome it - on the ground. The easiest way to do this is by giving the student a proper introduction to stalls. One of the biggest mistakes an instructor can make is to "show" a student a stall before the student is ready to see one. Much like a blind date, students have to be thoroughly prepared for a "sight" like this.
If we introduce stalls prematurely, the student might find the experience downright frightening. He could end up fearing stalls for the rest of his flying career. Perhaps you've flown with some of these pilots. This is not a desirable outcome.
We want to give students as much control as possible during stall training. Begin with a thorough ground briefing.
Stalls are a fundamental element of flight, so students should understand them well. Remember, a rock-solid base is built upon strong fundamentals. With a subject this important, a thorough - but not minutely complex - ground school session to the commercial pilot level is probably worthwhile.
A thorough preflight briefing will also help reduce uneasiness by addressing the student's specific concerns about stalls. The ground sessions should explain why students learn stalls, the aerodynamics of stalls, common misconceptions, the use and effects of the controls, the procedures to be used, and aircraft controllability issues.
Aside from the obvious safety purposes, teach students that stall training gives them the experience of expanding the flight envelope with the safety of an instructor onboard. They will learn to recognize the visual, audible, and kinesthetic cues that signal the onset of a stall and to replace instinctive reactions with trained responses. Turning stalls, (where the aircraft is stalled with a certain bank angle) emphasize the lateral control aspect of stalls. This requires the use of all of the controls in the recovery, not just the elevator.
When you discuss the aerodynamics of stalls, stress the fact that power is not required to recover from a stall. All the student has to do is decrease the wing's angle of attack. Power reduces the altitude lost in a recovery, however, and it is an essential part of the recovery.
We can demonstrate this principle, as well as an airplane's inherent stability, with a simple paper airplane. If you throw the paper flying machine with enough force, it will zoom upward, stall, pitch down, and fly again with no power or pilot input. Impressive. (Make sure you rehearse this before "show time.")
If a student has misconceptions about stalls, dispel them before flying. One of the most common misconceptions is that stalls somehow relate to engine stoppage. This is negative transfer of learning from the student's experience driving a car. Another is that when an airplane stalls, it suddenly stops flying and plunges, nose first toward the earth just like in the movies. Or that once stalled, the aircraft becomes unrecoverable. Don't underestimate how TV and movies influence students. Explain the truth about spirals, dives, and stalls.
Because it's easy for students to get lost in the details of a procedure, remind them often about the "big picture." The synopsis for any stall is to slow down, deploy flaps and gear if required, add bank if required, stall, and recover. Have students read about stalls in the practical test standards. Talk about the sensations they will experience, including the sometimes large changes in pitch attitude. Most importantly, brief students on the procedures to be used if a spin or other unplanned flight attitude occurs during stall practice, but don't scare them with this information.
In The Air
In flight, teach the easiest and least unsettling type of stall first - a straight-ahead power-off stall, without bank, and without using power for recovery, just like the paper airplane. When your student masters this maneuver and is comfortable with it, move on to power recoveries. Some people will criticize this approach and cite the law of primacy (the law of learning that says what we learn first is best remembered).
Yes, this approach introduces the maneuver in a way that's different from how students must fly it on a checkride. But, you must weigh that argument against the advantage of giving students a comfort level about stalls. Comfortable students are more likely to take decisive, deliberate, and timely actions in flight. Uncomfortable students can be more like a cook in a kitchen trying to put out a fire, hastily grabbing for the throttle, gear, and flaps.
Perhaps more important, a no-power recovery reinforces the fact that the most important part of any stall recovery is to reduce the angle of attack.
If you're comfortable with introducing stalls with no-power recoveries, then try this simple flying/not flying exercise. It shows the student how small changes in angle of attack move the wing between unstalled and stalled flight and lets him "play" with the aircraft right at the verge of a stall break.
For this exercise, climb 1,000 feet above a minimum safe altitude and clear the area. To help the student focus attention on the visual, audible, and kinesthetic cues associated with stall practice, you can cover some or all of the instruments. Then establish a long glide with partial or idle power. (Use carburetor heat per the operating handbook and remember to clear the engine frequently.)
From the glide, slowly increase the pitch attitude until the wing is on the verge of a stall, point out the stall cues such as change in wind noise or airframe buffeting, then recover by decreasing the pitch attitude. Keep the wings level with rudder inputs.
Have your student repeat your demonstration, with him controlling the yoke only. You make the rudder inputs. Ask the student to sneak up on the stall, and to recover when he wants. Have the student tell you when he hears and feels the stall cues. Ask him to make some aileron inputs and tell you when the ailerons start to feel mushy or sluggish. When the student feels comfortable with this, give him the rudder and have him make some inputs to demonstrate its effectiveness. After the student has felt the effects of the controls, ask him to raise the pitch attitude quickly enough to induce a full stall with a clean break, and then release the back pressure on the yoke.
This exercise should teach students to feel when the wing is "flying" versus "not flying." This feeling is especially notable in aileron response. When the wing is stalled, the ailerons are noticeably ineffective. As the student "plays" with the airplane during the exercise, ask him to tell you about the wing's condition, whether it's "flying" or "not flying."
When the student is "in touch" with the airplane, deploy flaps and repeat the exercise to show the difference in pitch attitudes. Naturally, you recover from the exercise at or above the minimum safe altitude.
From this exercise, students should learn that the elevator and rudder, along with power, are the controls they use to respond to a stall. You can use a similar exercise to teach turning stalls. Start with no-power recoveries, then, when the student is comfortable with those, move to power recoveries.
Perhaps more important, by "playing" with the airplane during the exercises, students should become aware that the airplane is near a stall and be able to "recover" from the stall before it happens, which is the ultimate goal of the lesson.
Stall training is about psychology as much as it is about tasks and procedures. As instructors, we must act like practical psychologists sometimes. This means part of our job is to allay fears, reduce anxiety, and dispel myths. Although numerous textbooks deal with stall training and procedures in great detail, few, if any, address the human issues. That's our job. That's where the challenge lies.
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