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Stall/Spin Prevention
It has to be reflexive
Stall/spin accidents are not as common as ground loops, but they are usually fatal. The solution, of course, is to get the nose down quickly, not to vertical, but just enough to unload the wing. You should not generate any negative g's, but you should feel a little bit light in your seat. However, knowing at a conscious level that we have to get the nose down is not going to solve the problem. Getting the nose down has to be a reflex.
The Art of Avoiding Ground Loops offers four layers of protection, i.e., a suite of four reflexes to keep you safe from stall/spin accidents. The get the nose down on takeoff reflex keeps you out of trouble in most takeoffs. The get the nose down on loss of power reflex guarantees stall avoidance when the engine quits. If either of those reflexes happens to fail, the wing unloading elevator reflex saves you from a full stall. If that reflex also fails, the wing leveling rudder reflex will at least prevent the spin, thereby saving you from a nose-down impact.
The get the nose down on takeoff reflex automatically lowers the nose to allow gaining speed in ground effect after any nose-high liftoff. This may seem elementary and unnecessary to practice, but the element of surprise can cause catastrophic delay if you have not trained the proper reflex. For instance, if you happen to carry nose-up trim on your final approach and at the last second suddenly add full power to go around, the nose may pitch up powerfully, causing a departure stall if you don’t instantly muscle the stick forward to lower the nose. The same thing can happen during a go-around after a bounce, or during a ground loop recovery.
Taildraggers may be more susceptible to this problem because they are more likely than other planes to take off in a nose-high attitude. They sit on the ground in nose-high attitude and they are often intentionally taken off in a nose-high attitude in short and soft field operations. They can inadvertently balloon off the runway in a nose-high attitude when hit by a gust or when bounced during a landing attempt. Getting the nose down immediately in these situations is critically important.
It is important even if you have one of the popular new high powered taildraggers that will climb in a very steep nose-high attitude. Yes, it will climb out of ground effect as long as the engine keeps running well, but if the engine should falter, you will suddenly be in deep trouble. If you don’t already have sufficient altitude to get the nose down, accelerate under gravitational force to a safe round-out speed, then round out, you will crash. It is much safer and far more prudent to keep the nose down until you have accelerated to a speed that will allow a safe landing in case of an engine failure during climb-out.
This reflex can be acquired by practicing a lot of three-point takeoffs, each time instantly getting the nose down to stay in ground effect while you accelerate to a safe climb speed.
The get the nose down on loss of power reflex automatically lowers the nose when the engine fails. Reflexively getting the nose down in this situation is critically important right after takeoff because with the nose up in a climb, speed will bleed off very quickly. If the nose is not lowered immediately, there might not even be enough speed left to round out and flare, let alone to recover from a stall. This reflex can be trained at a safe altitude by cutting power in a climb and immediately getting the nose down until your forward push response becomes automatic.
The wing unloading elevator reflex unloads the wing at the first sign of an incipient stall, well before the stall fully develops. This reflex is acquired by practicing recognizing incipient stalls by sound and feel at altitude and instantly unloading the wing to prevent the stall from developing.
The wing leveling rudder reflex replaces the intuitive urge to bring up a dropping wing with aileron. It is acquired by practicing stalls at altitude while suppressing the wing unloading reflex until a wing drops, then bringing that wing back up with rudder while simultaneously unloading the wing.
The three secrets of training any reflex are repetition, repetition, and repetition. You must train until you know for certain that in an actual inadvertent stall your initial reflex will be to level the wing with rudder.
