On 8 Jun 2004 10:06:45 -0700, (John Clear) wrote:

Stall = Engine stall?? Why do they always seem to screw this up??

Because the aviation use of 'stall' is totally foreign to them, and
they know what an engine stall is, and assume that is what happened.

I think whoever suggested replacing aerodynamic stall with the term
'wing fart' (Jim Weir maybe?) has the right idea. The only way to
get the general public to not think stall = engine stall is to use
a term that has no meaning to the general public.

This subject comes up in this group periodically. Several years ago
an airplane made an off field landing in upstate NY across lake
Champlain from Vermont. As he approached the field, his passenger
panicked and pulled the yoke back causing the airplane to stall and
pancake in too hard. No one was seriously injured but the airplane
wiped out it's landing gear.

The newswoman reading her copy said: "The passenger pulled the yoke
back causing the engine to stall."

It's perfectly normal for non aviators to interpret the word "stall"
that way because the only connection they have to the word is
literally an automobile engine stall. They *KNOW* what happens when
they stall their car and have no idea that stalling in an airplane is
anything different.

At one point, I proposed a survey in which we submitted a different
word to use for the aerodynamic stall. One of those suggestions was
"wing fart". Another was LOL for "Loss of Lift". My wife really
liked LOL and went around from then on chortling "LOL", watch out for
"LOL".

It was easy for her to understand what that meant. But like any non
aviator, even married to someone who is as fanatic about flight as I
am, she did not understand what a stall meant in aerodynamic terms.

So now I refer to a stall as LOL, while around her.

And yes, I did call the news station and spoke with someone there
about their use of the term. I asked the man who picked up the phone
if he realised that it meant something other than the engine quitting
and he said no, he did not. He told me he appreciated the information
and that he'd pass it on. Don't know if he did though.

Corky Scott