About Stall Psychology and Pilots

I've been reading the interesting thread started by Rocky about stall vs
the modern pilot. I'd like to offer some added comment on this subject
as this exact issue is closely associated with the human factors
research work I've done and am doing now on a continuing basis within
the air show demonstration community as well as the general primary flight
training community. This comment comes after experiencing literally
thousands of hours evaluating other pilots and covers part of a lecture
I've been giving on these issues for many years.



There are obviously diversified personalities among the general pilot
population, and you will be hard pressed to find any two pilots who view
their flying in exactly the same way.

This having been said however, on the issue of stalls and how pilots
envision themselves within the stall
environment there are two general categories involved.

There is a
comfort zone for some pilots where flight deep into the left side of the
envelope as well as flight on the back side of the lift curve apex
causes no discomfort or apprehension, and there are pilots whose comfort
zone virtually ends at 30 degrees of pitch and 60 degrees of bank with
the airplane right side up. The 30/60 component of this equation isn't
related to the parachute parameter in the regulations, but rather simply
to define the edge of that pilot group's comfort zone.

One thing I should make perfectly clear here is that pilots can fly
through entire careers within this 30/60 comfort zone and never have a
problem. There are many pilots out here right now who fit into this
category as the result of their training, and how that training has
ingrained this comfort zone into the way they envision their flying
environment.

Just where do stalls and how pilots view stalls fit into all this?
Well, before I go on, I think I should establish a base premise that I
strongly believe in, and have been preaching about for about 50 years
now. That premise is that although pilots can be considered "good"
pilots having been trained to fly within that 30/60 comfort zone, these
same pilots could be better pilots if their training and the way they
felt in the air while flying exhibited a comfort zone BEYOND that 30/60
defining line.

Let's explore this a bit more and take a look at some history.

Aviation is a business. To make it in business, you need to sell
product, services, or both. Aviation involves both. No sales, no aviation.
Now if one looks at a prospective pilot base as well as a prospective
aircraft sales base, it doesn't take very long to discover that for General
Aviation, if you want to make money and get the public in the air to
make that money, you have to SELL aviation as a safe, non-threatening-
and most of all, non- FRIGHTENING endeavor.

Now, if you look back to the fifties, you will find a concentrated and
skillful marketing program generally involving Fixed Base Operators, Flight
Schools, Airplane Manufactures, and indeed lobbyists in Washington; all
involved in structuring general aviation to be as safe as a walk in
the park.

The general "attitude" that defines how stall is viewed came right out
of this era. Add to this that design characteristics of the general
aviation fleet began to reflect much more stable flight envelopes than
the planes that came before this period, and you have the makings for
the way the issue of stalls came to be viewed generally within the GA
community.
In other words, a combination of business considerations, and design
enhancement all came together to redefine how flight instructors looked
at stall, and more importantly, approached the issue of teaching stall.

The result of all this from my own personal experience as a check pilot
and as a primary CFI was that I began to notice a pronounced difference
in the "comfort levels" of the pilots and CFI's I was encountering on a
fairly constant basis.

Where pilots and CFI's had been dealing with stall as a complete event,
in other words, full stalls both power on and power off, I noticed a
definite trend toward pilots dealing with stalls highly concentrated on
the recovery from the approach to the stall.

Naturally, the CFI's who came out of this era reflected this change to a
certain extent, and they carried this approach on into their tenures as
instructors.

All this isn't to say that there weren't still pilots and CFI's out
there teaching stalls the "old way". There most certainly were, and
still are such instructors. I am such an instructor BTW.

The bottom line on this issue is that as a pilot, you can function just
fine being trained to recognize and instantly recover from an
approaching stall. You can as well function very well as a pilot if your
comfort zone in the air lies within that magical 30/60 defining line.

But in my opinion, and in the opinion of many CFI's out here, you will
be a MUCH better pilot if your comfort zone in the air includes a
complete familiarity with the left side of the flight envelope, you feel
comfortable doing a full stall and recovery with the airplane, and your
butt cheeks don't squeeze together ever more tightly as the pitch
exceeds 30 degrees and the bank goes beyond 60 degrees.

--
Dudley Henriques