Checkride

Does the thought of demonstrating stalls during your checkride make you uncomfortable? You are not alone. But it should never be this way. Designated pilot examiners (DPEs)easily can recognize when an applicant feels this way. A veil of tension drops over the cockpit; the applicant’s muscles tense; his breathing rate increases; and his gaze becomes fixed and unfocused the moment the DPE requests a stall. The most common result is a stall recovery executed before the stall has even occurred. This leaves the DPE wondering whether the applicant knows what a stall actually looks or feels like, or if he would be able to recover from a real one. Remember, the practical test standards specify that the stall recovery shall be made “after a fully developed stall occurs.”

So, why must we practice a lot more stalls? Because when any pilot still feels anxiety—or even worse, fear—when doing stalls, he or she has not yet mastered the maneuver. Stalls are just another of the many flight maneuvers that student pilots must master on the way to becoming safe private pilots. And, just as with any of the other maneuvers, students must continue to practice that maneuver until it is consistent and relatively easy to accomplish.

Just imagine if the performance of a crosswind landing produced a similar level of tension or fear. Would that pilot really be ready for his or her checkride? No way. Yet, some student pilots continue to show up for checkrides with apparently minimal and certainly insufficient quality practice of the stall maneuvers. This is a critical oversight that needs to be corrected.

It’s only natural to avoid practicing something that produces discomfort. But the fact is that not continuing to practice stalls until they become routine, easy—and even fun—can turn a simple stall maneuver into a potentially dangerous weapon. In short, if stall recovery was not important, it would not even be required for the checkride. The FAA, recognizing this dangerous trend in pilots who have never mastered stalls, has reacted quite understandably and appropriately: Mandate more stall training and awareness at every level, including at the airlines.

Each time you practice recovering from a stall, you become a little more aware of the subtle changes that occur as the stall is approached and less surprised by the airplane’s reactions to the stall. This gradually increasing awareness is a huge confidence builder that produces nice, consistently performed, nonthreatening stall maneuvers, with no surprises. In the process, the stall becomes less like an evil spirit hiding in a dark alleyway, and more like a simple patch of ice on the sidewalk that is easily recognized and avoided. As youngsters, we’d frequently slip and fall on those ice patches. But as we gained more experience, the falls were more easily avoided because we saw the ice patches coming. Stalls are no different. The problem with stalls is that when they sneak up on us, the fall can be a lot harder.

If you still have a checkride to complete before earning your wings, I promise you, the stalls will become an easy maneuver, performed without fear or trepidation, if you continue to practice them. Remember to climb to a sufficient altitude and clear the area for traffic before commencing any training maneuvers. Then practice the stalls in a wide variety of flap and power configurations until you can easily and fearlessly recognize the approaching stall. Resist the temptation to recover before the stall is fully developed, and allow a moment to savor that stall buffet. Listen and feel—your airplane and its wings are talking to you. Then follow consistent recovery actions until you can complete those steps as automatically as if you were accomplishing a simple go-around.

And even if you’ve already successfully passed your checkride, but still feel that hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach at the mere thought of practicing stalls—please, call your old instructor and go up together to work on those evil spirits until they become nothing more to you than a patch of ice on the sidewalk.