Despite stall awareness training and more technology designed to help pilots avoid them, stalls are still a significant factor in accidents. But in this podcast, the last of our five-part series on the topic, veteran instructor Wayman Luy says stall training is getting better.
“What we’re doing right is doing scenario-based training. And the newer airman certification standards are driving us not just toward what a stall is but circumstances that could get us into it,” Luy says. “That’s helping quite a bit. The other thing is that because of the airline industry, instructors are flying a lot more hours per month on the way to the 1500 hours [for the ATP] and that makes the instructors more proficient,” he adds.
That said, Luy, who operates the Florida-based Wayman Aviation, believes an over emphasis on soloing early complicates the comfort level new pilots should have with understanding, avoiding and recognizing stalls. He believes a better way to address such training is a concentrated emphasis on stall awareness later in the training curriculum. And like Trip Taylor, who we interviewed in this podcast, he believes more emphasis on go arounds is just as important.
“We don’t practice enough go arounds. I find that pilots who fly for fun or professionally, are a little hesitant to do go arounds. If we’re not practicing go arounds where we’re reconfiguring the aircraft while on the go, it’s relatively easy to lose track of the airplane and that’s when we’re getting into an upset condition,” Luy says.
Other podcasts in this series include Richard McSpadden of the AOPA Air Safety Institute, Dan Gryder of GoldSeal Flight Instructors and Rich Stowell, a nationally known expert on spins.
Are people being trained on aft CG location as a factor due to both low stick force per G during entry, and then stability effects post-stall? I got some training relevant to that, and could clearly feel a big difference between a 150 with the seats way back vs. the usual two-guys-in-the-front-of-a-172. This also figures into what you (Paul) observed about light sports with low stick forces about a month or two ago.
Lately in Diamonds and my Comanche… with two guys in front, they basically had stick-shakers. Any backstory on the Diamond wreck shown there?
I have never done an aft-CG flaps-full-down-and-trimmed full-power go-around in any of these and suspect that the stick force to stall there is way lower than stick force to stall in a normal training scenario.
Stall awareness training?
Show every student the picture at the top of this article, point to it, and tell them “Don’t Stall”!
Done.
Anyone who inadvertently stalls a plane after seeing what can happen actually deserves whatever fate (and physics) dishes out to them. I’ve never had a surprise stall in 45 years of flying and quite frankly can’t imagine people who let a plane get so out-of-control as to let a perfectly goo plane kill them.
WELL SAID, MARK F.
Why does everybody seem to think the wreck in the picture is a Diamond? The parachute lines alone indicate Cirrus to me.