Newbie Qs on stalls and spins

I've seen that John Denker in his article advocating pilots to keep
practicing recoveries from stalls and spins at a safe altitude...
which prompts me to ask the following:

1. Since I don't think I've experienced a stall or spin before, is it
a nice sensation to experience as a passenger, or wouldn't one be able
to tell?

2. Is it ok for pilots to practice stalls and spins on commercial
passenger aircraft in mid-flight? I ask, since I don't think it's
happened on any flight I've flown so far - unless some pilot did it
without informing the passengers :\

Ramapriya

"Ramapriya" wrote in message
m...
I've seen that John Denker in his article advocating pilots to keep
practicing recoveries from stalls and spins at a safe altitude...
which prompts me to ask the following:

1. Since I don't think I've experienced a stall or spin before, is it
a nice sensation to experience as a passenger, or wouldn't one be able
to tell?

You know why they put those bags in the seat pocket of EVERY seat? It's for
the spins!

A stall can be gentle or a rough ride. It can also be the start of a spin.

2. Is it ok for pilots to practice stalls and spins on commercial
passenger aircraft in mid-flight? I ask, since I don't think it's
happened on any flight I've flown so far - unless some pilot did it
without informing the passengers :\

Now I know what all that screaming and yelling coming from the back seats
the last time I went flying was! And why none of the hostees came forward
for a quickie!

Ramapriya


;)
Peter

Transport category aircraft (what you call commercial) are stalled during
manufacturer's certification tests and that is about it. Jet aircraft are
equipped with warning "stick shakers" that activate when the airplane is
even close to stalling, and "stick pullers" that take the decision out of
the pilot's hands by physically reducing the angle of attack whether the
pilot likes it or not. You will never experience a stall in a "commercial"
aircraft.

Bob Gardner
"Ramapriya" wrote in message
m...
I've seen that John Denker in his article advocating pilots to keep
practicing recoveries from stalls and spins at a safe altitude...
which prompts me to ask the following:

1. Since I don't think I've experienced a stall or spin before, is it
a nice sensation to experience as a passenger, or wouldn't one be able
to tell?

2. Is it ok for pilots to practice stalls and spins on commercial
passenger aircraft in mid-flight? I ask, since I don't think it's
happened on any flight I've flown so far - unless some pilot did it
without informing the passengers :\

Ramapriya

Bob, Is that true for landing also? Do they do full stall landings or do
they fly the airplane into the ground?



"Bob Gardner" wrote in
:

Transport category aircraft (what you call commercial) are stalled
during manufacturer's certification tests and that is about it. Jet
aircraft are equipped with warning "stick shakers" that activate when
the airplane is even close to stalling, and "stick pullers" that take
the decision out of the pilot's hands by physically reducing the angle
of attack whether the pilot likes it or not. You will never experience
a stall in a "commercial" aircraft.

Bob Gardner
"Ramapriya" wrote in message
m...
I've seen that John Denker in his article advocating pilots to keep
practicing recoveries from stalls and spins at a safe altitude...
which prompts me to ask the following:

1. Since I don't think I've experienced a stall or spin before, is it
a nice sensation to experience as a passenger, or wouldn't one be
able to tell?

2. Is it ok for pilots to practice stalls and spins on commercial
passenger aircraft in mid-flight? I ask, since I don't think it's
happened on any flight I've flown so far - unless some pilot did it
without informing the passengers :\

Ramapriya





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"Bob Gardner" wrote

Transport category aircraft (what you call commercial) are stalled
during manufacturer's certification tests and that is about it.

Bob, in order to demonstrate my ability as an airline B-707 flight
instructor, the FAA required me to demonstrate instruction in full
stalls. Done lots of them. A little more exciting than a C-172,
but not much. :-) Instruction in "Dutch Roll" recovery with the
yaw damper turned off was much more exciting.

Bob Moore

"Bob Gardner" wrote in message ...
Transport category aircraft (what you call commercial) are stalled during manufacturer's certification tests and that is about it. You will never experience a stall in a "commercial" aircraft.

Bob Gardner

Oh, so the ones that become transport aircraft pilots don't ever get
to practice stall and spin recoveries, then? That'd make me more
jittery before going on a plane the next time...

I do remember reading (on planecrashinfo.com) CVR transcripts of the
final moments of a few plane crashes and recall that a couple of them
stalled prior to crashing. It's quite possible that the stall
condition was reached because of some other earlier error/malfunction
during the crash phase, but could it also be that the stall wasn't
recovered due to a lack of practice??

Ramapriya

(Ramapriya) wrote
but could it also be that the stall wasn't
recovered due to a lack of practice??

No...airline pilots practice stall recovery in the
simulators at least twice-a-year.

Bob Moore, CFI
ATP B-707 B-727
PanAm (retired)

Ramapriya wrote:

Oh, so the ones that become transport aircraft pilots don't ever get
to practice stall and spin recoveries, then? That'd make me more
jittery before going on a plane the next time...

I think most of them train stalls in the simulator on a regular basis.
Spins however... I might be wrong, but to my knowledge, most transport
category airplanes would break on spin recovery.

Stefan

Stefan wrote in message ...
Ramapriya wrote:

Oh, so the ones that become transport aircraft pilots don't ever get
to practice stall and spin recoveries, then? That'd make me more
jittery before going on a plane the next time...

I think most of them train stalls in the simulator on a regular basis.
Spins however... I might be wrong, but to my knowledge, most transport
category airplanes would break on spin recovery.

Stefan

There are now companies (www.fcitraining.com, www.stallion51.com to
name two
examples) that are trying
to market specialty training in unusual attitude recovery, using
aircraft capable of aerobatics. I don't know if any of the major
airlines have bought into this,
but I understand that some of the corporate flight departments have.

I will also note that just about any airline pilot has practiced stall
recovery
in light planes during their training and some have done spin training
in light
aircraft, as well.

Whether or not this is revelant to large aircraft operations
or not seems to be a "hot topic" these days and I, personally, have no
idea
what the answer is?

rick, who loves to loop and roll light aircraft but has no idea if
this
would be useful training for airline pilots

Bob Gardner wrote:

You will never experience a stall in a "commercial"
aircraft.

I wouldn't be too complacent about this. There were some articles
about the American crash in New York shortly after 9/11 that were
discussing why the rudder had apparently torn off of the aircraft.
At least one of those articles discussed another incident involving
the same type of plane, in which the stress of the incident _almost_
tore off it's rudder. No one paid much attention to the fact at the
time, though, because they were more concerned with figuring out why
the pilots had allowed the plane to stall.

Rich Lemert