Why do seemingly good pilots crash? They have plenty of experience, attend recurrent training, have plenty of time in type and have no record of prior incidents or accidents. They are not bravado or known as habitual risk takers.
So why do they take off one day and make a mistake that results in an accident? That’s the question we ponder when news reaches us about a fatal crash, and we pray it’s not someone we know. Even when it’s not, and without any knowledge of their experience, training and circumstances, it is sad to realize a family needlessly lost someone.
If you learned to fly before the Internet age like me, we didn’t have all the resources available today to learn what might have led to a pilot having a really bad day – and what we might do to avoid a similar situation. One of my favorite columns in Flying Magazine was “I learned about flying from that,” which gives first-hand accounts from average Joe pilots who lived to tell their stories and share their hard-earned wisdom. Today, there are numerous sources and experts, many on social media, who dissect and interpret accidents, often before the NTSB published a preliminary report.
You’re most likely familiar with the concept of the accident chain of events, which identifies a series of decisions and factors that lead to an accident. It isn’t just one action that caused a plane to go down; sometimes it starts with an attitude, complacency, or the infamous killer “get-home-itis.”
We’re going too fast. (I’m guilty of this.) We have a commitment we must make; we get behind schedule and in a hurry. In this multi-tasking, always-connected world, we can easily continue that pace once we reach the hangar. Besides, the reason we have an airplane in the first place is to go fast, right?
As a sage instructor once advised: Slow down. Take time for the full checklist. Take time for the approach. (Don’t accept a shortcut if you’re unprepared for it.) Fly with a co-pilot, if possible. Statistics show that accidents are reduced by one-third when a second pilot is sitting up front.
High-quality training is the best insurance you can buy. If you have diligently trained for normal operations and emergency scenarios, there is less chance the workload will build up on you when the heat is on, resulting in you getting behind the aircraft and making a fatal mistake. Should a mundane trip turn into a terrifying emergency situation, training is your edge for survival.
Why Are Stall/Spins Still a Thing?
With all the technology, resources, and state-of-the-art training within easy reach, how is it that stall/spin accidents are still among the most insidious and preventable causes of fatal crashes? In our primary training, the majority of us have spent a lot of time talking about stalls and demonstrating them either in the actual aircraft or in the simulator. Once you move into turbine equipment, more recurrent training time is spent on systems and flight management. If you don’t prioritize it, stick and rudder skills – especially outside the 10 percent of the envelope you usually fly in – can become neglected.
Considering the fact that stall/spin accidents still occur in all classes of aircraft today, it begs the question of how well pilots understand what causes the airplane to stall at virtually any airspeed between the bottom of the white arc to the barber pole.
Here’s a quick refresher: An accelerated stall is any stall that occurs at a higher-than-1G stall speed. As you know, airplane flight manual speeds are usually defined at maximum gross weight. You’d also agree that stall speeds decrease with reductions in airplane weight. Therefore, the only way an aircraft can stall at higher than the 1G V-speed is when the airplane weighs more than maximum weight.
How does an airplane exceed its maximum published weight? Besides the obvious answer of overloading the plane with people and fuel, it is when the aircraft’s wing is loaded at greater than 1G. Enter a banked turn and hold altitude, and the wing will “load up” with more than the normal force of gravity (known as load factor). The steeper you bank the aircraft, the higher the G-load in level flight. A rapid pull-up from a dive also loads the wing, increasing stall speed. Abrupt, severe maneuvering also adds G-load.
Additional G-load is, by definition, an increase in weight (a 6,000-pound airplane under a 2G load weighs 12,000 pounds, for example). If the “effective weight” of the aircraft under G-loading exceeds the maximum gross weight of the airplane, then the stalling speed under that load will be higher than the published V-speed for the flap (and other lift-generating devices) position.
Without question, one of the best ways to experience and practice accelerated stalls is in an aerobatic aircraft while under the guidance of an experienced instructor. Ask anyone who teaches in these aircraft, and they will most likely tell you that the biggest weaknesses they see in “conventional” owner-pilots are their awareness and mastery of accelerated stalls and spin recovery.
Accelerated stalls are one of the more sneaky dangers that get pilots in trouble, and often fatally so, when they occur in the traffic pattern or during a circling approach. One of the most useful advanced training encounters is to understand, recognize, and experience an accelerated stall in a structured environment with a qualified aerobatic instructor – with the intent that you’ll never find yourself actually in one while sitting in the left seat of your airplane.
Stay safe out there!
