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Stalls FAQs
You've no doubt heard of stalls.
But in flying, stalls have nothing to do with an aircraft's engine.
Here, stall refers to a loss of lift over the wings. You will learn
how to recognize imminent stalls, so that you can prevent them from occurring, and how to recover from them.
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Will
I be required to perform full stalls and recoveries, or just imminent
stalls? (top)
The FAA requires training in full and imminent stall techniques in
both the landing and departure configurations. Remember that you will
practice many stalls in all stages. If you are asked to do any stall
at any stage, you will have already mastered them with your instructor.
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I see a lot about angle of attack in articles on stalls. What is that? (top)
Angle of attack (AOA) is the relationship between the wing's chord
line and the air through which the wing is moving. Put a simpler way,
the angle of attack is the angle at which the wing meets the air or
what is also know as "the relative wind."
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Is it true that the entire wing stalls at once at the critical angle of attack? (top)
No. Pilots are given the impression that when a specific angle of
attack is reached, the entire wing stalls all at once. This is seemingly
verified in flight when, during a practice stall, all lift seems to
disappear suddenly. But this is not the way it works. Initially, only
a small portion of the wing is stalled, not the entire wing. Most
aircraft are designed with a slight twist built into the wings so
that the root of the wing (the part next to the fuselage) is at a
slightly higher angle of attack than the outboard portion of the wing
(near the wing tip). This very subtle twist allows the root to stall
first, thus allowing the pilot to maintain good airflow over the ailerons
as they enter the stall. This is also called "washing out"
a wing. For example, the wing twist of a Cessna 172 is 3 degrees.
In other words, when the inboard section of a 172 wing is at an angle
of attack of 14 degrees, the outer wing section has an angle of attack
of only 11 degrees. Such a scheme forces the root to stall before
the tip.
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I
have heard that all stalls lead to spins, and that spins are dangerous.
Is that right? (top)
Contrary to popular belief, spins are not caused by stalls. If they
were, every stall we ever attempted would wind up in a spin. The real
culprit is excess yawing at the onset of stalled flight because of
either excess rudder use or insufficient rudder use at the onset of
stalled flight. Keep your stalls well coordinated, and you will not
spin your airplane.
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What exactly is a spin? (top)
A spin can be described as a rapidly descending maneuver in which
the airplane rotates about its vertical axis with unequally stalled
wings.
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