Help me clear up my brain fart

"Ekim" wrote in message
om...
In my mind, as long as I keep my airspeed sufficiently high and keep
the nose pointed down, (ie. keep my AOA under control) things like a
steeper banks and routine slip to landings should be relatively safe.
Right?

Right.

In fact, the admonition to never go beyond some arbitrarily low bank angle
while in the pattern is thought to be one of the common ways that
low-altitude stall/spin accidents happen. Pilot thinks steep bank angles
are bad, is overshooting final, tries to compensate without a steep bank
angle by using rudder to get the nose around, then stalls in the skidding
turn.

It's obviously much better if you can always fly a nice, easy pattern. But
when things don't go perfectly, the right thing to do is *fly the airplane*,
doing what's necessary to acheive your goals safely. Coordinated flight is
safe. Slips are safe. If the turn needs to be steeper in order to keep the
plane coordinated, so be it. If you need to slip to correct for extra
altitude on final, go right ahead.

There may well be situations in which the more prudent decision is to go
around and try again. You are expected to identify those situations and
take appropriate action when necessary. But there's nothing inherently
wrong with a steep turn or a slip that automatically requires such an
action.

Pete