Over the years I have become convinced that the way accidental stalls happen
is very different than the way stalls are frequently taught. Pulling the
nose way up and waiting for the break is just not how it happens. If stalls
are taught this way the student forms the impression that nobody but an
idiot would accidentally stall a glider.

Reducing the airspeed very slowly until the glider stalls is more like a
real situation. With a slow airspeed reduction the glider will begin to
settle in a level attitude so that the AOA increases without the nose
getting very high. The break, when it comes, is likely to be more
"interesting".

Even better is teaching stalls starting from slow flight. Flying a square
pattern at minimum controllable airspeed before applying enough backpressure
to induce a stall gives a much better demonstration of what an accidental
stall looks like. This is more likely to produce an impression that, "this
could really happen". If a pilot thinks it could happen, he will be more
cautious.

Bill Daniels


"Jean" wrote in message
...
It seems "old" power pilots used to keep nose high when having too much
altitude, close to stalling, in order to maximise drag. This obviously is
not the right way to react with a glider (or any ship with decent
airbrakes), and has caused some other accidents already ...
Jean

"Richard Branch" a écrit
dans
le message de ...
I don't normally comment on these posts for fear of upsetting someone,
but
in this instance it is clear the report is confused, one does not crash
after a stall because of having too "much" altitude. Rich...

Joe had been flying for a few hours in his motorglider, came in for
landing with too much altitude, stalled and crashed.