Stalls - Angle of Attack versus Vstall

Hi,

I'm a student pilot, learning in Piper Warrior II's.

I'm hoping that someone can shed some light on stalls for me.

I understand that an aerofoil doesn't stall becauase of speed, it
stalls because it has exceeded it's critical angle of attack. It can be
stalled therefore at 100 kts (an accellerated stall?) just as it can at
20kts.

If this is the case, then why do they quote 'stall speeds' in aircraft
specs? For example (from Wikipedia), for the PA28 VS (stall, clean) =
50 kias. Is 50 kts the speed at which you would be unable to maintain
LEVEL flight? ie, at 50kts, in level flights, you would have an AOA of
16 degrees, therefore, any slower and you'd have to pitch back past the
critical angle?


Thanks very much in advance to anyone who can shed light on this for me
:-)



Damien Sawyer