I'm one of those pilots who generally only does stalls on BFR's and
checkouts. Extended slow flight with the stall horn going and the wings
wallowing strikes me as being more productive.

Another club member mentioned to me a while ago that our 172 N doesn't stall
any more. I haven't done stalls in it since we had it re-rigged so that it
flies beautifully square and handles wonderfully. So, I decided last week
that it would be a good time to practice some stalls.

I like to do stalls in the same way that I would expect to get in trouble,
airspeed slowly decaying as if I were distracted by something and not paying
attention. I 've gotten good breaks in this plane that way in the past.

I went into a power on stall and pretty soon had the yoke all the way back,
the stall horn going, and the wings wallowing. But, the plane didn't break.
It just kept mushing along at about the same altitude until I gave up and
let the nose down for a no altitude loss recovery. I think I could have held
it that way all day.

Power at the 1500 rpm I use for final and 30 degrees flaps, same thing. I
ended up hanging with just a slight sink. Power at idle, the sink rate was a
lot faster but I could have ridden all the way to the ground at the same
attitude. The nose just wouldn't come down.

Our A&P is a top guy, I've verified full elevator travel, the stop screw is
well in, we carry a lot of junk in back so CG is aft. I certainly could have
gotten a break with a bump of power and by pitching up faster but the plane
is different.

I'm not complaining, the flight characteristics are now very forgiving but I
wish I could figure out what has changed. Could it be all those bugs on the
wings acting like VG's?

(Don't bother responding that there are all sorts of ways to get this plane
to stall and break. I know that and I could still demonstrate a break and
recovery in it. You just have to be much more aggressive about it and I'm
wondering what could cause that.)

--
Roger Long