Common confusion

I get all kinds of questions on this task. “Do we have to go to a full break?” “Is it OK if we occasionally hear the stall horn on slow flight?” And my personal favorite: “You want me to do a turning stall? Won’t we spin?”

Y’all, I get it. Slow flight and stalls are confusing for several reasons. First of all, let’s just say it: Stalls can be scary. So, people spend less time teaching and practicing these maneuvers than something more fun, like landings. Second, the FAA’s testing standards for these tasks have changed multiple times over the years. The airman certification standards (ACS) are also different for every checkride. So, slow flight and stalls look different for a private versus a commercial versus a certificated flight instructor checkride. Let me break it down for you:

Private pilot checkride

The ACS says that for slow flight, a private pilot applicant must “establish and maintain an airspeed at which any further increase in angle of attack, increase in load factor, or reduction in power, would result in a stall warning (e.g., aircraft buffet, stall horn, etc.).” In other words, you should not hear the stall horn continuously throughout the maneuver. Will you fail if the horn goes off? No. In fact, the FAA spells this out for us: “Evaluation criteria for this task should recognize that environmental factors (e.g., turbulence) may result in a momentary activation of stall warning indicators such as the stall horn. If the applicant recognizes the stall warning indication and promptly makes an appropriate correction, a momentary activation does not constitute unsatisfactory performance on this task.” The stall task for private pilot applicants, however, should be taken to full stall. And you actually have to talk during this maneuver, announcing all the stall cues as you continue to pitch up. So, it might go something like this, “I feel the buffet. There’s the horn. There’s the full break,” then recover.

For both private and commercial applicants, the examiner can request a straight-ahead or turning stall. Make sure you have practiced both versions.Commercial checkride

Slow flight for commercial applicants should be flown exactly the same way as the private pilot checkride. The only difference here is that the standard gets tighter. So, you have to keep the airplane within plus or minus 50 feet of the assigned altitude instead of the 100 feet allowed during the private pilot checkride. The stalls, however, are at the discretion of the examiner and don’t necessarily have to go to full break. So, be sure to ask the examiner in the preflight briefing whether he or she expects you to recover after the first indication of the stall or after the full stall break. Keep in mind that for both private and commercial applicants, the examiner can request a straight-ahead or turning stall. So, make sure you have practiced both versions.

CFI checkride

Slow flight and stalls for the CFI checkride should be flown to the commercial standard. Obviously, you will want to teach throughout the maneuver as well. Please, understand your aerodynamics here. I can’t tell you how many CFI applicants have told me that we make shallow turns during slow flight “so we don’t spin.” This is wrong and creates the impression that students should be scared of slow flight. Remember, a spin only happens in an uncoordinated stall. We make shallow turns in slow flight because increased bank angle leads to increased load factor which leads to increased stall speed. During slow flight or a turn from base to final (if we want to make this practical), we don’t want to stall. So, we limit our bank angle to keep the stall speed from coming up to meet us.

The latest version of the CFI ACS introduced a new task called the “Demonstration of Flight Characteristics at Various Configurations and Airspeeds”—a big name for a relatively easy maneuver. This task is really just a chance for you to explain how the airplane performs with varying degrees of drag, i.e. flaps, best glide speed, maneuvering speed, and so on. One of the skill elements here calls for old-school slow flight (the way we did it back in the days of Orville and Wilbur) where you maintain an airspeed right above the stall. So, in this one instance, yes, the warning horn should be chirping the entire time.

To recap, ask the examiner in the preflight briefing if he or she will be expecting stall recovery at full break or just the first indication. And for slow flight, fly at an airspeed just above the stall warning unless you are taking a CFI checkride and the examiner asks for the “demo of flight characteristics,” in which case you should hold an airspeed just above the actual stall. Pretty simple right?  Let’s not make this harder than it has to be.

Natalie Bingham Hoover began flying in 2004. After corporate and airline work, she now serves as an FAA designated examiner and chief instructor of a flight school in Mississippi.