Lesson 12 -Exercise 10B- Stall recovery with flaps
Lets get ready to circuit – stalling
Again we are looking at stall recovery with flaps and how to recognise you are entering one and how to get out of it before the aircraft does actually stall. Aircraft do have a stall warning buzzer as an audible warning, but these lessons also teach you the characteristics of the aircraft such as sloppy response to aileron input and aircraft shudder as you approach the stall.
Pre-lesson chat
We have a little chat before the lesson where my FI explains what he is expecting to see from me today. First we talk stalls and today it’s going to be turning stalls, and a brush up on straight stall recovery from last time. This and the previous stall lessons all lead into the next stage of training : approach and landing. My FI also says he wants me to perform the Take Off today, keeping the aircraft flying straight ahead once airborne, raising the flaps at 300 feet and keeping a good positive climb speed of 75-80 knots. I have been spending the last couple of days watching videos of turning stalls so I have a good idea of what is ahead and it has been the main focus of mine these past 2-3 lessons to nail my take off’s, so I’m looking forward to this one.
Pre-Flight
Briefing done, it’s time for the pre flight checks and I collect the key. I start to walk out of the club house onto the apron and realise something is missing.. I have forgotten my booster cushion ! I now have to go back and retrieve my car keys, go out to the car park, get the cushion, return the car keys to flight bag stored in one of the offices and then get back out to the aircraft. WARNING : This is not the way to start your flight or pre-flight checks, I have read many a crash report blaming rushed pre-flight checks and mistakes made by pilots eager / rushing to get airborne. I stop myself once out on the apron, take a few deep breaths, reminding myself of the errors made in these situations, and calm myself down. If we are late, we are late. If my FI has to cut our lesson short to make the next, so be it.
Stalling
Pre-Flight out of the way, we taxi out to the hold, I complete the power checks and call for clearance. With one on approach we sit, watch and analyse the landing, all that was missing were score cards lol. Much too low on the approach especially over the road at the start of the runway. As my FI said, had there been a high sided vehicle passing at the time he would have hit it. Conington has a displaced threshold, clearly marked, this did not seem to be adhered too on this occasion, although after rounding out he did touch down after the threshold markings. Anyway, with the landing aircraft now backtracked I take us out to the threshold and line up on the centre line. I check the FI is happy and ready for take off and with my toes off the brakes and heels now on the floor, I apply full power and some right rudder to keep us straight. I even manage to keep an eye on the speed and start to pull back on the column at 55-60 knots, the nose rises and we are airborne, the nose pitches up more than required and some forward pressure is required to keep the speed building and the nose down. As we pass through 300′ I raise the 1 stage of flap used for the take off and settle us down into a 80 knot climb. We are off to 4000′ today, the cloud base looks good for it.
Having reached 4000 feet, we brush up on the approach configuration stall. First of all, its time for HASELL, the check you do before each stall.
- ‘Height is good, Aircraft / airframe secure
- Safety- are we both strapped in okay & doors secure
- Location- no built-up areas below us and no cloud
- Lookout – would you like a full 180 or two 90 degree turns ?
‘lets do 2x 90’s please Paul’ states my FI, as we have a good look around. At the same time we notice the cloud formation has dropped a little either side of us and we are now in a channel with no cloud above us. Taking this into account I inform my FI that I will make a 180 degree turn and keep us in this channel. Always keep your wits about you regards cloud base and where you are flying to, do not be afraid to make decisions, your FI will instruct you if it’s not the best solution. We do two approach configurations, one with 2 stages of flap and another with full flaps selected as if on final approach. Neither recovery was pretty, but they did the job. Next we look at turning stalls and recovery, again the recovery is not pretty but the basis is there and we start our way back to the airfield.
Approach
So, I start my decent from 4000 to 2000 feet, power back to 2000 rpm and a descent speed of 90 knots. 
We turn towards the airfield and pass overhead at 2000 feet. It’s time to now do the deadside descent to 1000 feet and into the circuit. 3 x 90 degree left turns later, and I am just reaching 1000 feet as we need to make a left turn to once again pass over the airfield and in line with the little used 16/34 runway. Pre-landing checks performed, I turn downwind and for the first time my FI asks me to make the RT calls. ‘Golf Zulu India – Late downwind’, and then I am soon into another 90 degree left onto the base leg. No sooner have I levelled out, when one, then two stages of flaps need setting, keeping the nose down and speed at 75. The work is building up fast, and again I overshoot the runway centreline with my left turn and have to not only try and get her back in line but also fight the crosswind trying to push back where I came from. I manage to get her back in line, keep the decent and aim for the numbers on the runway initially. I was just about keeping it all together when a gust pushed us right and well off the centreline. I attempted to get her straight and my FI stepped in and helped out. I eventually ended up following through his inputs for the last 100′ or so as we touched down nicely.
I taxied back and we then pushed the aircraft into her usual parking spot. I was knackered ! I could not believe we had been running for approx. an hour, the lesson had gone very very quickly indeed, a sign of just how much work this lesson had been. Although we had covered all we had set out to do, I was not exactly happy with the outcome and wandered back to the club house. My FI says he was happy with the days lesson and decides to credit me with a landing ! Really, are you sure ? I say. Apparently I did virtually everything other than require some assistance at the end, Happy Days !
Next time out we start circuits, now this will bring on the workload, but being repetitive, I hope to hone to quite a few of skills I have been learning whilst doing so.
This Lesson
27-08-15 : PA28-161 : G-BOZI : PUT : Conington to Conington : 10:55 : 11:50 : 0.55
Total time : 10 hours 25 mins