When in doubt, put the nose down

[PeterNSteinmetz]

One of the things I always emphasize to students is that if you have a feeling that something is going wrong with the plane, put the nose down. It is almost always the right answer and should be essentially subconscious.

One student would say this saved his life when the aircraft started stalling at low altitude.

Thus I was pleased to see this in Leighton Collins book, “Takeoffs and Landings”.

“Isn’t it striking that so many of the answers to angle-of-attack problems are to reduce e angle of attack, with forward pressure on the stick?”

 

[Jim Logajan]

I'm pretty sure that full back trim in most GA planes with or without flaps will be trimmed at a speed above stall. So simply letting go of the stick or control wheel will keep the plane from stalling regardless of engine power.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

I am not quite sure I understand the point Jim. I don’t think I ever fly with full back trim.

Are you saying that you usually have to be flying pulling back to get the plane to stall, so just releasing pressure should put the nose down?

 

[Jim Logajan]

I am not quite sure I understand the point Jim. I don’t think I ever fly with full back trim.

My note regarding trim was that I wanted to head off any objections anyone might raise that there may be cases where trim might be set to a speed below stall and therefore a forward push was safer than simply releasing back pressure.