A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

Part 5- by Rob Stapleton

Well it seems the NTSBs stats have awakened the aviation training industry to the need for stall, spin training.

This is a topic that Marcus Paine writes about in the Alaska Airmen’s Association quarterly newsletter the Transponder, and has for the many years.

I remember the first meeting with Marcus was at an “alternative CFI meeting” to the FAA’s CFI/DPE meeting in Anchorage some 7 to 8 years ago. While other CFIs were listening to a canned message from the beltway, we were hashing out the meaning of stall recovery and why isn’t it part of flight training for today’s student pilots.

 Paine operates a business part of the year in Anchorage and part of the year in Tucson Arizona called “Unusual Attitudes.” Marcus and I had many an India Pale Ale discussing the need for and a lack of understanding of the concept and need for good stall spin awareness in the primary and flight review syllabus of flight training. Paine's passion is training pilots to be knowledgeable and comfortable with unusual attitude maneuvers and recovery.

Just thumb through any monthly General Aviation News Accident Reports to get the picture. Six out of 11 accident or incident reports are the average for loss of control on landing or takeoff accident reports.

Paine like myself is a disciple of Sammy Mason’s book (and philosophy) Stall, Spins and Safety last published in 1985. 

The loss of control on takeoff and landing in the national statistic has the largest percentage of accidents among Part 91 and Part 135 operators. The reason we concluded was a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of flight and how to control an aircraft while in slow flight, what to look for and to understand the physics of a stall and perhaps an ensuing spin.

It is encouraging that aviation publications the likes of AOPA Pilot who most recently published  in its April 2023 edition in the Proficiency & Efficiency section a story by Dave Hirschman called “The Spin Zone: Confronting aviation’s intimidator,” while I personally am not crazy about the title I applaud AOPA for addressing the topic.

Recently as well the 2013 March/April edition of the Business Aviation Insider published “Flying Fundamentals: Upset Recovery Training” on Page 12 in the NBAA publication, which also printed another article; “Climbing Toward Safer Flying: New Approaches to Resolving Recurring Accident Causes.” OK it looks like the mainstream is now getting the picture that new pilots and old non-proficient pilots are not fully aware of their aircraft’s flight characteristics.

Something has to be done.

This year pilots will see an added effort by the FAA Safety Team to promote the use of Angle of Attack Indicators, thus showing a pilot when they are increasing an aircraft’s angle of attack to the dangerously close, critical angle of attack. Something any pilot can sense by an attitude indicator, or artificial horizon. But what about the airspeed, and weight and balance, or the sudden thermal burst or gust of wind…will these devices be yet another distraction to knowing your aircraft and your limitations?

Going back to the Santa Paula airport and the days of flight instruction and mentoring by our CFIs, the above solution would appear to be a Band-Aid approach to a bigger problem, not knowing your aircraft and your capabilities.

I remember Tony Mason saying,” don’t be afraid if the aircraft ends up in an unusual attitude, focus on knowing and expecting it to do just what you told it to do, now execute your recovery.”

That is exactly what we in the aviation community need to teach, not fear… but knowledge and response.

A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

Part Four-

In those days remembering my flight instruction on a case by case, lesson by lesson was easy. Both my brother and I reveled in stories, books, and movies about flying. If it had wings we were interested.

My interest in flying started by building model airplanes. Memories of going to the local hobby shop with my father on a rainy weekend day and picking out a model to buy and take home to assemble might have been the start of a yearning and understanding of aviation.

After the plastic models, were the flying balsa models, then the U-Control plastic Cox gas .049 powered models flown at the corners of our neighborhood. This progressed into larger U-Control balsa and rice paper airplanes. From there we skipped radio controlled to much larger Cessna 150s.

These were obtained by renting from Rex and Mildred Wells, and flown with our flight instructor Tony Mason.

Our lessons consisted of a conversation about what we were going to learn before each lesson. A conversation about what we were about to do while we were sitting in the airplane, then taking off and doing what was discussed. We would perform flight maneuvers or a takeoff and landing at the direction of a cool, calm, Tony Mason.

 Tony was usually around the airport but when he wasn’t you could depend on him to pull up in the families leaf green Toyota pickup truck.

Mason wearing his Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses looked the part of a flight instructor, was a bit quiet and always challenging our motor skills with some exacting activity. He reminded me of a circus act performer or a tight rope walker always practicing precision.

Mason would first show you how to perform then talk you through your takeoffs and landings and then would require you to do the same by telling him what you were doing. If you slipped up instead of yelling at you or grabbing the controls he would tell you to go around. Start over, or would perform the required action again.

Quick look for this or that, airspeed altitude attitude questions  could come at any time, best of all were the lets do that again and see how you do replies…meaning I did a poor job the first time around. This would allow me to re-think and perform a more masterful approach, or turns with no loss of airspeed or altitude. In short he demanded perfection and mastery of the aircraft.

My favorites were learning to spin the aircraft and recovery from stalls in a turn. Today most flight instructors would be terrified to teach a student these very essential aspects of flight.  The theory of how an aircraft will recover, and the reality are sometimes very different.

For example the stall in a turn, a scenario that we in Alaska call a Moose stall meaning that while looking at an animal, in this case a moose, while flying low and slow you stall the aircraft low to the ground the result is usually fatal.  Why the aircraft gives you no warning, buffet or indication and suddenly flips on its back in the opposite direction of your turn, with one wing stalling and the other still creating lift, or drops nose down too low to recover airspeed before planting the aircraft like a lawn dart in the  ground.

 Most pilots will immediately yank on the ailerons to correct the action when adding rudder to stabilize the gyration is the solution to the stall. Of course the rate of gyration or in some cases a half snap roll is exaggerated by adverse yaw due to the direction the spinning propeller. If you fight it or use ailerons you will lose a fair amount of altitude.

 If you understand this stall entry you can recover in a few hundred feet, or less if you are ready and aware.

Tony once showed me this and I was amazed at how the aircraft stalled rolled on its back and by quickly pushing forward on the elevators while inverted with neutral aileron and by using the rudders to re-position the nose the plane rolled right out almost on the point that we entered the stall albeit some feet lower.

You never forget those violent maneuvers, but when your flight instructor says ok let’s do it in the other direction and follows you through… it makes more sense.

Just a note; Mason then remembered that we did not cage the artificial horizon, said I’ll take the controls and proceeded to do a series of maneuvers to right the gyros.

 His explanation was like this: “This is a rented aircraft and if we return with the horizon out of kilter the owners will think we were doing aerobatics. You and I will then be restricted from using the aircraft again.”

Well Tony might have been teaching on the edge according to the aircraft rental agreements which amounted to a lecture from Rex Wells (who incidentally flew with Sammy Mason and the Hollywood Hawks) but it left me with a better understanding that the aircraft and its controls will react if the aircraft has airspeed and altitude and what the correct inputs are at the right moment.