After my novel on the "A of A / stall" post I visited my "reading room" and realized I should have touched on one more thing, the "killer turn" and how it relates to A of A / stall.
That's generally the turn from base to final where we find ourselves overshooting the runway centerline. I've done it many times when not allowing for wind or not starting the turn soon enough. Our reaction is generally to increase the bank angle to vector more lift forces in the direction of the turn to increase the turn rate. This requires more lift to maintain our current rate of decent so we increase the back pressure (more pitch for more A of A). We usually are adding more "inside the turn rudder" also which causes us to be "cross-controlling" which really bites us if we stall. Anyway, the further off centerline we drift the more we bank to correct and we keep adding back pressure (increasing the A of A) to maintain our rate of decent and increase the rate of turn. At some point we will exceed the ability of the wing to generate enough lift at that indicated airspeed to do what we want because we have reached the stall A of A. Our over use of "inside the turn" rudder will generally cause the "inside the turn" wing ( the low wing) to stall first and it tucks under, rolling us inverted and turning us into a dust ball. When you find yourself in that situation you have two options. With either option you must keep the A of A below the stall angle. #1 (and generally not the best one) is to increase your speed so you can generate more lift at a lower A of A. You can do this with power, usually a slow response, or lower the nose to pick up speed. When you lower the nose (less A of A) there is less lift being generated and thus less drag so the aircraft accellerates. At a higher airspeed we can return to a higher bank angle and increase our A of A to save the turn if we had enough altitude for the maneuver and don't go beyond the stall A of A. When low to the ground this thought seldom crosses our mind. That's why you've been pulling back on the stick (yoke) to begin with. # 2 (the best if terrain is not a concern) is to forget trying to save the turn and the approach. Roll to wings level so that all lift generated can be used to check the rate of decent. With all lift generate at 90 degrees to the ground we don't need such a high A of A to generate enough lift to check our decent at the slower airspeed. Fly out of the situation and do a better job on the approach next time. Keep the A of A below the stall angle and you won't find youself eating dirt. Terrain and/or brain lock are the killers. We either go brain dead and keeping pulling back on the yoke until we reach the stall A of A /OR/ we have flown into a situation where terrain keeps us from rolling level and vectoring all lift to check our rate of decent. That could be lack of altitude or landing below surrounding terrain. The key is to not get yourself into that situation to begin with and ,if you do, take corrective action before you run out of options. Keep the A of A below the stall angle and if you don't hit the ground you can try it again. Question: Can you stall an airplane, while inverted, by pulling back on the stick. Answer: Yes, with enough pitch forces to place the wing at a higher A of A then the stall angle will cause the wing to stall, even if inverted. This can happen easily, such as the top of a loop, if some of the initial back pressure on the stick is not released. This of course differs from airplane to airplane and is dependent on speed of entry, G forces applied, etc., etc., etc................ Point is it still stalls at the same A of A. Larry Flesner
