Just came back from the morning sortie, called Stall 1. Ok, "stall" in this context means a condition in which an aircraft or airfoil experiences an interruption of airflow resulting in loss of lift and a tendency to drop. An aircraft with very low power and airspeed, and still wanna maintain the straight and level flight will have to pitch up (higher angle of attack).



However , this increasing angle of attack can only last until the aircraft stalls at the critical angle of attack (normally 16 degrees). The symptoms approaching the stall are:

1) Cockpit is quieter than usual (due to lower power).
2) High nose attitude (due to higher angle of attack).
3) Low airspeed.
4) Controls become very sluggish.
5) Buffeting/vibration of aircraft body and control stick

Recovery from stall:
Release backpressure from the control stick slowly. Aircraft's nose will start to come down. When it is about to reach level, give full throttle to reduce height loss. Apply rudder to maintain straight flight. After airspeed reaches more than 85 knots, climb out of dive.


My performance today regarding stall was not good enough as I released the back pressure on the control stick too fast on the first try and the aircraft starts to dive! On the second try, I released the back pressure and applied forward pressure at the same time, so the aircraft dived again! On the third try, you may think I gonna do it correctly but I was not! Haha. What I did was I applied the full throttle when the aircraft was starting to dive and not during nose level!

I have recognized my mistakes now. That is just the first step. To learn from the mistakes and not to repeat it are the next steps to go. After reading all my sorties, I do have a lot to learn. My instructor said that he's training me and my batchmates to be individual pilots. Individual in the sense that I do not have to rely on anyone to manoevure the aircraft. When I go for solo flight, I can only rely myself!

Gotta buck up more! I am going to start to make a simulator to help me in flying. Hey, it is not the real simulator machine! My version of a "simulator" is that I use imagination and picture out the way I fly and all the procedures that need to be taken , and then write them down in papers and then do the simulation everyday. It's like doing the same thing over and over again until the thing becomes a habit. Just like driving.....

..... you know that you don't brake when you see the traffic light turns orange.....

=D