PPL | Lesson #3 | 14-07-16 | Stall Recovery

The very next day after Lesson #2, the weather was lovely and there was a spare slot with my instructor. This only meant one thing – Lesson #3.

Armed with my new AFE checklist I again worked through all the checks. It’s now a given that I will be doing the take off but once again, instant yaw to the left when rotating at 65kts. I will remember to apply right rudder! It’s not hugely important, but for me I feel it will just make things that bit smoother and track down the centre line all the way out until turning crosswind.

This lesson was all about stalls and recovery. Before doing any kind of aerobatic manoeuvre there is a series of checks referred to as HASELL checks. These are Height, Airframe, Security, Engine, Location & Look-out. I won’t go into the detail but they are critical to ensuring any manoeuvre is done safely.

Many people seem to dread this lesson but I was quite looking forward to understanding what it takes to make a plane fall out of the sky. As it turns out, a huge amount of back pressure!

Following this lesson, it made me wonder just how there can be so many accidents as a result of stalling / spinning. However, what I didn’t appreciate until I reflected on this lesson, is that these stalls were done from a flying straight and level configuration and hence much harder to stall. I can’t remember reading an AAIB report where someone stalled from this configuration, you’d have to be doing something very wrong! Most stalls seem to occur from slow flight (approaches to landing) or slow turns (turning onto final) where air speed is much lower and it is easier to exceed the critical angle of attack. Hence the phrase ‘air speed is king’.

My next lesson is booked for Saturday 17th July where, all being well, I’ll be moving on to circuits.

I’m filming using a GoPro Hero4 with suction mount and a special adaptor to capture the headset and ATC audio. If anyone would like any more info on the set up – just drop me a comment below!

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