R
EVISION
:
-
D
ATE
:
12/29/04
P
AGE
:
24
Copyright
2004 Glasair Aviation, LLC Arlington, Washington All rights reserved
4-8.4 A
CCELERATED
S
TALLS
An accelerated stall is a stall caused by the application of the flight
controls in such a way as to rapidly increase the angle of attack beyond
the critical angle for the airfoil. Because of this rapid change in angle
of attack, accelerated stalls typically occur at airspeeds considerably
higher than the published stall speeds for the aircraft.
Two situations account for the majority of inadvertent accelerated stall
entries. First, any aircraft will stall at a progressively higher airspeed as
the angle of bank in a turn is increased. As bank angles exceed 30°,
the stall speed rises exponentially. Accelerated stalls of this type are
very difficult to produce in the Sportsman without imposing excessive
G loading on the airframe. In the unlikely event of such a stall,
however, the recovery technique is the same as for any other stall:
reduce the angle of attack. In most cases, a slight relaxation of back
pressure and a reduction in the angle of bank will be all that is required.
The second common way that pilots get into accelerated stalls is by
pulling the stick back too abruptly while recovering from an ordinary
power-on or power-off stall. This is typically done to avoid altitude
loss, but of course the so-called “secondary stall” caused by the over-
enthusiastic pull-up only eats up more altitude. Because secondary
stalls can occur at an airspeed considerably above Vs and because they
tend to be more aggressive than unaccelerated stalls, pilots must be
very disciplined in not pulling too hard too soon in effecting stall
recoveries. In the event of a secondary stall in the Sportsman, recover
just as you would from a power-on stall: relax back pressure and pick
up the dropped wing with top rudder.
