I read Ian J. Twombly’s article about stalls (“The ‘S’ Word”) in the March 2013 issue and can only have wished that he were my instructor instead of the fool I did have. On our first flight to show me stalls, we reached an altitude of 3,500 feet and the instructor said, “This is a power-on stall.” He immediately applied full power, and pulled the control column straight back really hard. The nose snapped up, my stomach ended up in my throat, and I almost passed out. I have an acute sense of balance and the sudden change in attitude messed me up. When completed he said, “Easy as pie!”
Without any further instruction or comment he told me to do it. To say I was scared would be an understatement (at the time I was in my early 60s). I applied power and pulled back the column—not as aggressively as the instructor, though. The nose went up and the airplane rolled; something about centering the ball, which I was never told about. I counted three complete rotations as we descended and I passed out.
When I came to we were at 3,000 feet and headed back to the airport. Doing stalls after that has always been a challenge and will probably continue to be. After we landed, all I could think about was that if I had been alone, I would have been a hole in the ground. Needless to say the instructor was not the greatest and he was all macho. He would sing little ditties about the mistakes you made or your state of mind at the time something went wrong. The bad thing was that my other available instructors were not much better.
Name withheld by request
I was very pleased to see an article that talked about how clinical psychology can have a positive impact on the aviation industry in general and pilot training in particular. My only quibble was to note that if a person has a true phobia of stalls, he or she will evidence panic attacks when exposed to this feared situation. This is far beyond what we typically think of as fear and apprehension, and instead can be paralyzing.
However, the general principles of graduated exposure (or finding ways to expose the student to stalls in a fashion that moves from least to “most” threatening) and combating irrational fears with real information and experience is a way that any flight instructor could help that person who has a general fear.
Mitchell Hicks, Ph.D.
Evanston, Illinois
My fear of slow flight and stalls was broken by three simple things:
1. I figured out that “the wing” does not stall—just the inboard end of it. The remaining lift at the unstalled wing tips keeps the airplane steady and leaves the ailerons working.
2. My CFI saw me looking cross-cockpit and asked what I was looking at. I said I was having trouble seeing the inclinometer from the right seat. He told me to stop looking at the turn coordinator and concentrate on something outside, even a cloud. Then use the rudder pedals to keep my spot from moving left or right. Right away my stalls were straight ahead, and the wing stopped dropping.
3. A mentor showed me how he introduces stalls: With the instructor flying, bring the airplane slowly into a full stall while talking to the student about such things as “only the inboard wing stalls.” When fully stalled, show the student that you can control the airplane and actually make turns to selected headings (talk about looking at spots outside). Then recover, bring the airplane back to altitude, and full stall it again while giving the student control of the rudders (only).
Have the student control wing drops and turn to headings, all while looking at a spot outside. After that you can have the student stall it (but hold it full back) and fly the fully stalled airplane himself.
Roger Ameden
Trumbull, Connecticut
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