AOPA Stall/Spin Study -- Stowell's Review (8,000 words)

What's more, it is possible, though difficult, to fly slower than Vs and NOT
stall. Trivially, when the plane is standing on the ground, it is not
stalled.
If you botch a loop you can easily end up inverted at the top of a loop
with almost zero airspeed, and not be stalled. Of course in normal
flight it's very hard to lose speed without stalling, but if you
pull vertical you can do it. It's true that if you're below Vs and
not stalled, you won't have much lift either and you'll be
falling. But the airflow is still attached to the wing, and hence you are
not stalled.

John

"ShawnD2112" wrote in message
...
Chris,

It IS a myth. Stall is related to critical angle of attack and has
absolutely nothing to do with airspeed. The quoted stall speeds are based
on very important assumptions of configuration and power setting.
Typically
when people talk about the stall speed of an airplane, they mean V0, which
is clean, flaps up, power off.

You can stall the airplane at Vne if you pull hard enough. There are
enough
warbird accidents where the pilot stalled at the bottom of the loop and
flopped flat into the ground to prove the theory.

Shawn
"Chris Hoffmann" wrote in message
...
The first thing that jumped out at me from your report is this:

Another myth cited in the AOPA study is "watch your airspeed, or
you're going to stall this airplane!"

Pardon me, but if your airspeed gets below stall speed, you ARE going to
stall. Further, if your airspeed is below the usual 1.3 Vso safety
cushion,
you are getting to the point where all it takes is a turn too steep, or
a
bit of tailwind, or a yank back on the yoke, and you are LIKELY to
stall.
This is not "myth".

On the other hand, this:

"Just don't let airspeed get below a safe value and
stalls are not a problem."

is not an axiom to fly by. Students *should* know/be taught that a stall
can
occur at any speed, any attitude, of course. But I see nothing wrong
with
training students to keep their airspeed where it's supposed to be in
the
pattern and on approach, which, I believe, is the context from which
those
two quoted remarks were taken.

--
Chris Hoffmann
Student Pilot @ UES
30 hours