Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 15:30:17 -0400
Message-ID: <redirect-1294311@logan.com>
From: "Skip Slater" <skipslater@earthlink.net>
References: <list-1293992@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [LML] Stalls, Spins and other Whirlygigs
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"BTW, ATP's out there - a question.  Do you practice stalls in an airliner?
I
know, I know, the passengers just don't like it."

   Putting on my airline pilot hat for a minute, we don't practice full
stalls- we practice approaches to stalls.  We only do it in the simulator.
I believe only the manufacturer's test pilots do it in the airplanes.
   All airliners have AOA driven stall warning systems.  We recover at the
onset of stick shaker, which comes before the plane actually stalls.  In the
case of loss of lift caused by windshear or wake turbulence, we recover by
flying the plane right at the edge of stick shaker, which correlates to L/D
max, until we get a positive rate of climb.
  One great addition to the 737's I fly at American (as well as our 777's)
is that we now have an AOA presentation on our primary flight displays as
well as in the HUD on the 737.  This is a long overdue safety tool that
simply gives pilots a graphical display of the input that the stall
computers are receiving from the AOA probes on the plane.  When we get into
extremis situations, all we do is cob the throttles, keep the wings as level
as possible and fly the AOA to recovery.
   Skip Slater