Teaching stalls

The airplane can stall at any airspeed or attitude—really! Pilots are good at reciting this truth but don’t seem to believe it. After I ask the candidate how to recover from a stall, a common response is: “Add full power and push the nose toward the horizon.” My follow-up question is always, “OK, what if the stall horn is sounding but the aircraft nose is already below the horizon?” After a lengthy pause, the candidate motions pulling back on the yoke and says, “Full power, and bring the nose to the horizon.”

I’ve had the same exchange with flight instructor candidates who tell me that an aircraft cannot be stalled in a nose-low attitude. These are, presumably, pilots who have gone through spin training during which the airplane is typically pointed at the ground with stalled wings.

For these reasons, I’ve asked flight instructors to stop using the word “horizon” when discussing stall recovery. With an impending stall, pushing forward on the yoke will remedy the stall even with a nose-low attitude (see “Lessons from a Loop,” March 2025 AOPA Pilot).

The rudder can help, but sometimes it’s not enough. Many pilots fret stalls because a spin might be lurking around the corner. When I teach spins, we perform a demonstration with the rudder that can reveal its limitations. During the exercise, I take the throttle, elevator, and ailerons, and my student has access to the rudder pedals only. Over the course of a couple of minutes, I keep the ailerons neutral and reduce the throttle while maintaining a level pitch attitude by slowly increasing the angle of attack. My student’s job is to keep the wings level using only rudder inputs. At first, it’s easy, but once we hear the stall horn, the challenge intensifies. A wing drops, and the quick rudder inputs that worked at higher airspeeds become woefully inadequate. Soon his efforts are futile, and the airplane begins a corkscrew dive that cannot be counteracted with rudder pressure alone. Once he throws in the towel, I push forward slightly on the yoke, and we easily return to wings-level flight. While the rudder can be helpful in maintaining coordination, reducing the angle of attack is the more important ingredient in stall recovery and avoidance.

Teach all the signs of a stall. Students are very good at identifying sloppy controls, buffeting, and the stall horn sounding, but as the rudder exercise demonstrates, losing directional control is yet another indication of a stall. In “It’s Complicated” (June 2024 AOPA Pilot), I presented the idea that it’s not correct to think of a wing as having a single, constant angle of attack since the angle between the chord line and the relative wind might vary across the wing planform. But we can talk about the angle of attack of a wing in an average sense. Since coordinated flight forms the razor-thin edge between slipping and skidding flight, it’s not surprising at all that a wing dips during a stall. Around the critical angle of attack, airplanes are unstable in roll. Ensure your students know that difficulty in maintaining wings-level, coordinated flight is the sign of a stall, and forward pressure on the yoke is the important next step.

Private candidates need to demonstrate turning stalls. My request for a private pilot candidate to perform a turning stall is often met with a deer-in-the-headlights look. This is the most common stall task that is overlooked by CFIs. Many believe that turning stalls are saved for aspiring commercial pilots only, but the Airmen Certification Standards (FAA-S-ACS-6C) for the private pilot proves otherwise. In either a power-off or power-on configuration, the examiner can request a full stall with a bank angle up to 20 degrees. Don’t let your student pilot execute one for the first time with an examiner in the right seat. I get it, the ACS isn’t exactly a page-turner, but digging into it on occasion will yield some surprising facts and help ensure your student is ready for her big day.