Stowell created a course that he calls Emergency Maneuver Training, or EMT, specifically to teach pilots of any skill level how to avoid trouble if they can and cope with it if they can't. The program emphasizes exploring the edges of the normal flight envelope - something we rarely do in the course of studying for most certificates and ratings. By teaching students to anticipate potential problems, recognize the first signs that a problem is developing, and ingrain the correct reactions to fix it, Stowell hopes to produce safer, more confident pilots. And he does, to the tune of some 150 trainees each year.
The EMT program consists of at least one and as many as three modules, depending on the student's goals. Each module consists of four separate flight lessons and an equal number of ground lessons for about six hours of training. Learning is greatly enhanced with the accompanying book and video explaining each of the maneuvers and the key recovery elements.
Each module offers training exercises designed to hone judgment and control discipline. The first module, stall/spin awareness, teaches or refreshes such skills as climbing Dutch rolls, turns, slow flight, power-on and -off stalls, one- and two-turn spins in both directions, recovery from aggravated spins and unusual attitudes leading to spins, spirals and spiral recoveries, and recovery from skidded turns. Module two expands on the exploration of the limits of aircraft control with an emphasis on wake turbulence encounters and control failures. Students review the maneuvers learned in the first module and move on to slips, rolls, half rolls, inverted flight, and aerobatic-style turns. Taken together, these modules teach students a great deal about their own capabilities and the capabilities of the aircraft they fly within the context of a complete upset/ emergency training curriculum. To top it off, each and every landing made throughout the training is a simulated engine-out.
Students who wish to continue can take the third module, basic aerobatics. In that module, students learn full and half loops, Immelmans, half Cuban eights and reverse half Cuban eights, hammerhead turns, inverted turns, inverted Dutch rolls, and inverted spins. They also get the chance to design and fly their own aerobatic sequence. While learning aerobatics is undeniably fun, that's really just the icing on the cake. The meat of the emergency training is in the first two modules of the program.
During those modules, students will fly as many as three different aircraft-each selected to provide the best possible training at the most affordable cost. While students can do all of their training in the Bellanca Decathlon, those on a budget may prefer to spend some time in the less-expensive Bellanca Citabria and Cessna 172. Yes, 172. Since the 172 is a common trainer, spending some time exploring its capabilities, including recovery from incipient spins, gives students the oppor- tunity to experience the same control responses they might encounter if they find themselves in a real-life emergency. Aircraft owners are also encouraged to bring their own airplanes to the training, giving them a chance to experience all appropriate maneuvers in the aircraft they fly.
Stall/Spin Awareness
Pilots who have learned to fly in the current fashion - in a modern trainer complete with a panel full of goodies - may experience a moment of dismay when they first climb into an airplane with Stowell. For most students, training begins in the Citabria. While the airplane is fairly new - mid-1970s - its tailwheel, tandem cockpit design, fabric construction, and stick are something out of aviation's early days. Then there's the panel. An altimeter, airspeed indicator, and tachometer are virtually the only instruments available to help the pilot determine whether or not the airplane is doing what he wants it to do. There isn't even an attitude indicator or turn coordinator. The most valuable instruments are the view out the window and the feeling in the seat of your pants.
I, for one, had heard a lot of talk about seat-of-the-pants flying, mostly from old warriors telling war stories. But, to tell the truth, I had never really experienced it for myself until I had spent some time in the cockpit with Stowell. After warming up with Dutch rolls varying from mild aileron inputs and progressing to full deflection, it was time to try some power-off and power on-stalls. Like so many pilots, I had never felt especially comfortable with stalls - especially the extreme nose-up attitude of power-on stalls. After I tried a few and learned to relax through the process, Stowell showed me how to feel my way through a successful, coordinated stall while looking out at a wingtip or even up at the cockpit ceiling.
Then it was time for a couple of rudder stalls, also called falling leaves or extended stalls. Stowell had me put my hands in my lap, leaving my feet on the rudder pedals. As he pulled the airplane into a power-on stall and held it there, it would be up to me to stay light on my feet, feeling and reacting to the slightest yaw to keep us from spinning. "Imagine you're running away from a hungry lion," Stowell advised. "Run as fast as you can, and that will be almost fast enough." He was right.
I started running. But I was completely unprepared for the wild gyrations that I induced as I tried to hold the wings level using only my feet. I couldn't help wondering what had happened to the stable, docile stalls of a moment before. As I slid around in my seat, always a half-second behind the airplane, I discovered the real meaning of seat-of-the-pants flying and the value of staying ahead of the aircraft with nearly constant, small corrective inputs. This was just one of many little epiphanies I would have in the coming days.
The second lesson is all about spins. Here students use the skills learned in the first lesson - especially the ability to feel what the airplane is doing and be both precise and as aggressive as necessary with control inputs - to enter and recover from one- and two-turn spins in both directions. While a survey of flight instructors conducted several years ago revealed that most CFIs earn their spin endorsements having performed only two spins, students who complete the first module of Stowell's program will have performed somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 spins, including several aggravated spins.
Once students know how to enter and recover from the slowest, most predictable form of spin, they take a step back and learn how to recognize the earliest stages of a spin and recover before it develops. By this point students are relatively relaxed and comfortable with spins, and the sudden wing-drop of an uncoordinated stall doesn't induce the fear and tension it might have just an hour before. This technique of teaching students something new and challenging, and then backing off so they can put that skill in the broader context of normal flying, is used effectively throughout the course to keep students relaxed and focused.
Students next explore the root of the classic base-to-final stall/spin accident-the skidding turn. As Stowell demonstrates a skidding turn - virtually the only demonstration he performs throughout the course - students learn to identify the telltale signs of this accident waiting to happen. Again, the emphasis is on quick recognition and recovery.
If the stall/spin accident is every pilot's greatest fear, the descending spiral must be its corollary. Unlike a spin, in which yaw is the critical axis, roll is the critical factor in a spiral. And students in Stowell's course learn to deal with the high G-load and rapidly increasing airspeed of this maneuver while quickly identifying the problem and recovering from it.
With two of the most frightening scenarios - spins and spirals - under their control, Stowell's students learn to deal with engine failures, beginning with the most efficient way to set up the glide. Students memorize the sight picture for the specific airplane's best-glide speed and learn how to position the nose and trim to reach it immediately from any attitude and airspeed without the need to look at the lagging airspeed indicator. Then they practice that setup repeatedly before returning to the pattern to test their skills in a power-off landing. Like much of what Stowell teaches, this exercise can and should be practiced after students return to their own flying environment.
The same lesson also explores the key factors in crash survivability, using accident statistics to demonstrate the importance of flying the airplane first, the futility of turning back to the runway if the engine fails immediately after takeoff, and the importance of maintaining control all the way to touchdown. Many instructors and flight training programs work so hard to avoid frightening student pilots that they almost completely avoid the details of preparing for and surviving a crash. As a result, the frank discussion of accidents Stowell provides may be something of a shock to trainees. While a discussion about the G forces involved in a sudden stop and whether it's better to hit an obstacle head-on or risk a turn in the search for more open ground may seem extreme, it's the sort of information pilots will be grateful to have in the unlikely event they ever face such a choice.
The final lesson of the first module returns to spins, with the emphasis on aggravated spins and spins resulting from unusual attitudes. Students quickly learn how making the wrong inputs in an attempt to correct a spin can worsen the situation. As Stowell moves the aircraft into spins from such unusual attitudes as loops, snap rolls, and Immelmans, students have the chance to identify the direction and nature of each spin and make the recovery - a confidence-boosting exercise that gives students the chance to prove to themselves that they can recover from an unexpected spin. Equally important, trainees discover that the same simple control inputs, applied with precision, will correct a recoverable spin, regardless of how it starts.
In-Flight Emergencies
While making a quick, clean recovery from a spin requires precise control inputs, that control discipline is only the beginning of what students can expect to learn. High-quality rolls with a minimum loss of altitude require a series of sequential control inputs around all three axes that can easily be confused as the world turns inverted. In the second module, in-flight emergencies, students spend much of the first lesson practicing rolls. And Stowell is not inclined to accept what he calls student-grade rolls, either. He wants his trainees to perform rolls with maximum control authority and minimum loss of altitude while maintaining a desired heading. To do so effectively, students must be able to separate elevator, aileron, and rudder inputs to maneuver precisely even while they are in the disconcerting position of seeing the sky at their feet.
On the surface, rolls may seem like an aerobatic maneuver unsuited to the type of flying most pilots do. But severe turbulence, rotor, or a wake turbulence encounter can roll an airplane to an extreme bank angle, or even inverted. As with all of his training, Stowell emphasizes avoidance, especially when it comes to wake turbulence. But he also recognizes that sometimes the best efforts to avoid a bad situation may go awry. When that happens, pilots who have been through his program will know they can correct the situation. As a result, the roll training portion of the program follows the model of the spin training in the first module: Students first learn to perform the maneuver from entry to recovery, then step back to practice recognizing and correcting the problem at the earliest possible moment, before moving on to exploring aggravated scenarios.
In the case of rolls, the aggravated scenarios include simulations of wake turbulence encounters. Because a wake turbulence vortex has a great deal of rolling energy, it may be difficult to stop the roll even after the pilot has identified the problem and applied the correct recovery inputs. To simulate this experience, Stowell performs a series of snap rolls and has his students recover - something that demands full and aggressive control inputs first in the direction of the roll to keep the aircraft moving toward upright and then in the opposite direction to stop the roll and hold the airplane right side up. Students also spend some time performing half-rolls and flying inverted-two more opportunities to practice precise, separate, and sometimes counterintuitive control inputs as when pushing forward on the stick to keep the nose up in inverted flight.
The need for precision when you're flying upside down may seem obvious, but it's all too easy for pilots to become complacent in the course of normal operations. That's one reason Stowell expects his students to use their newfound ability to operate each control independently to achieve the desired effect in such everyday but little explored maneuvers as slips, the focus of the next lesson.
Beginning at altitude, students use a highway as a reference to help them maintain a steady ground track as they transition between extended left and right slips. Returning to the airport, students put those techniques to work closer to the ground, slipping in both directions all the way down to a landing. The experience helps students to master the fine line between a stable, spin-resistant slip and an unintentional transition to a spin-prone skid. At the same time, students learn to overcome the hesitation they may feel when operating close to the ground.
But why spend so much time practicing slips? Theoretically, using good judgment throughout the approach will make slipping to lose extra altitude unnecessary. True, but slips can do much more than help you lose altitude without gaining airspeed. They may prove life-saving if you have a control failure. That's the emphasis of the third lesson in this module.
What happens if your rudder jams? How will you safely maneuver to land? The answer is a well-controlled slip. A good slip may allow you to hold a course, turn, climb or descend, and set up for a slow, controlled landing on or off an airport even without the use of either the rudder or the ailerons. But diagnosing an unexpected control problem such as a stuck rudder or aileron isn't easy if you've never experienced it. That's why Stowell's students get a little firsthand experience. Once students are comfortable transitioning in and out of slips from a variety of configurations, Stowell declares a control failure. While he holds the yoke or rudder in an appropriately deflected position, students must respond to the failure by transitioning to the appropriate slip. Soon Stowell is staying quiet, but the student is noticing, and hopefully responding to, a variety of simulated control failures.
Of course, being able to perform a good slip is helpful if the rudder or ailerons get stuck, but it's of little help if the elevator is jammed. Students learn that even if the elevator sticks with full upward deflection, there's no need to panic. A combination of varying power and applying trim along with small, coordinated rudder and aileron inputs can help a pilot bring the airplane to a slow, controlled touchdown.
Once students have learned and practiced all of the prescribed maneuvers, it's time to relax and have a little fun with the airplane. This is where flying a C-172 or the pilot's own airplane is especially important. In the last lesson of the second module, Stowell gives his students a chance to explore the parameters of flight in the normal category aircraft they are most likely to use. Throughout the training, Stowell repeatedly points to the Decathlon's G-meter to show students that spins, rolls, and even loops properly performed can be executed within the design limits of a C-172 or other normal category aircraft. While he by no means encourages his students to perform such unauthorized maneuvers in these aircraft, Stowell wants them to recognize that, in an emergency such as a wake turbulence encounter, pilots can use the skills they have gained to right the aircraft and fly it under control without overstressing the airframe.
That knowledge helps students feel comfortable as they explore the capabilities of the airplane they fly. Now students have the opportunity to make 60-degree-banked turns - something most private pilots have never done. They'll also perform wingovers and full-deflection Dutch rolls and sit back and watch as the airplane oscillates, demonstrating its aerodynamic stability as it tries to regain its trim airspeed despite power and attitude changes.
By the time students have completed the first two modules of the EMT program, they will experience increased confidence in themselves and their airplanes. They will also have new skills to take home and practice. While Stowell discourages his students from going out and performing spins and rolls, he does encourage them to practice transitioning in and out of slips while maintaining a heading, performing frequent simulated engine-out landings, practice transitioning efficiently to their airplane's best-glide configuration, and regularly revisiting such maneuvers as steep turns and stalls.
Pilots don't need to have a lot of experience to benefit from Stowell's training regimen. In fact, the sooner in your aviation career that you take a course in upset recovery or emergency maneuvering, the better off you'll be. Most of Stowell's students are private pilots with between 100 and 500 hours in the air, and most travel from other states to spend a few days training with him at Santa Paula Airport in California. But even that isn't necessary. Stowell travels across the country and to locales as far away as Indonesia and Japan providing seminars and flight training to groups.
The training is well worth the time and expense - about four days and $1,200 to complete the first two EMT modules. While each lesson includes only about 0.7 hours of flight time plus an hour of ground training, that time is packed with information and new skills. It may not sound like a tough schedule, but students are advised to take no more than two lessons a day to give them a chance to absorb the material and do a little armchair flying. At the end of the course, more than mastering any particular maneuver, students have learned to master themselves-reacting quickly to even the slightest deviation, using precise and correct control inputs, and remaining calm in unusual situations. And it's those skills that they know will help them stay out of trouble in the first place.
For more information about Stowell's training programs, visit his Web site ( www.richstowell.com ) or telephone 800/869-6627.
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