Plane Stopped in Midair

One other thing... it's essentially impossible to
stop a fixed-wing airplane in midair. (You can have
zero ground speed due to headwinds, but not zero
airspeed). If you try, the nose drops and it glides
towards the ground. If you try to stop that, it will
eventually perform an aerodynamic stall, which WILL
make the nose drop, but it still won't come to a halt.
About the only way to reach zero airspeed is to
pull the plane into a near-vertical climb. And even
then it reacts by dropping the nose and building
up some speed again (or if you are truly vertical,
it can fall tail-first and then it will at some point
snap into a more normal posture and then start
to fly nose-first again). It's fun to do though, in
the right kind of airplane - a small aerobatic one -
and with enough altitude.

John

jharper aaatttt cisco dddooottt com wrote:

One other thing... it's essentially impossible to
stop a fixed-wing airplane in midair.

yep, that's why I was expected the plane to fall from the sky.

(You can have
zero ground speed due to headwinds, but not zero
airspeed). If you try, the nose drops and it glides
towards the ground. If you try to stop that, it will
eventually perform an aerodynamic stall, which WILL
make the nose drop, but it still won't come to a halt.
About the only way to reach zero airspeed is to
pull the plane into a near-vertical climb. And even
then it reacts by dropping the nose and building
up some speed again (or if you are truly vertical,
it can fall tail-first and then it will at some point
snap into a more normal posture and then start
to fly nose-first again). It's fun to do though, in
the right kind of airplane - a small aerobatic one -
and with enough altitude.

John

if it had been an airshow kind of situation I wouldn't have given it a
thought but this was a commercial jet and it was over a populated area.
No fun...

Debbie