Comments on: Power + Pitch = Stall (?)

By: Land and Hold Short » Disjointed notes on my Gaspé trip

Land and Hold Short » Disjointed notes on my Gaspé trip — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 22:27:50 +0000

[...] Flying four adult-sized people plus luggage plus full fuel in a 160 hp Warrior is legal, but it’s a huge challenge. You have to treat every takeoff as a short-field takeoff, and have to be bang on the numbers to make the thing leave the runway and climb at all on a hot day (I’ve posted before about how flight training fails to prepare pilots for heavily-loaded, underpowered planes). Expect to see frequent negative climb rates above 7,000 ft (4,000 ft if there are any mountain waves): just hold Vy and be patient. [...]

By: david

david — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:53:57 +0000

Airspeed lags a big after pitch changes, so it’s easy to end up chasing the needle (unless you’re very good at damping out oscillations).

By: harry freeman

harry freeman — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:51:56 +0000

good explanation of stall, but seems too complicated…what if pilot just flies the climb airspeed and just settles for whatever climb rate he gets for conditions of the day? (to heck with all that pitch stuff) freeman@midmaine.com

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:44:23 +0000

This is taught by instructors who have been taught with a view to fly an airliner with an abundance of power. It’s not safe in lower powered aircraft (i.e. for all the rest of us). When students learn to fly VFR with a single engine plane they do not need an AI. In fact, they should be taught to fly for airspeed when climbing, that’s all that matters. As you point out, the pitch follows automatically.

By: david

david — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:48:20 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Joel. Memorizing a standard pitch angle for a specific airspeed at a specific power setting works only when weight and density altitude are roughly constant. Unfortunately, while they tend to be (close to) constant during training, one of the first flights a person takes after a PPL typically involves loading up the plane with buddies or family, and suddenly the old, memorized pitch angles become very dangerous, and we start to see those fatal departure-stall accidents (especially in the summer). You’ll still have to use pitch angle in any given flight to avoid chasing the ASI, but you cannot safely use a pitch angle that you’ve memorized in advance — you need to establish a new pitch angle every time you fly.

By: Joel Jacobsen

Joel Jacobsen — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 04:37:25 +0000

You’re saying that pitch doesn’t control airspeed, but then you say to choose the pitch angle that will give you the proper airspeed for the power setting. It sounds like you just contradicted yourself.

By: Fred W.

Fred W. — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:46:29 +0000

Brilliant explanation! I’ll be reading you regularly from now on.