Slow Flight

On Sep 9, 6:03 am, Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
There is little doubt in my mind that the ability to do slow flight at
the very edge of stall speed will do more to prevent accidents than
1000 hours of cruise speed flight. Is there anyone here who is
proficient that lands their aircraft more than 10kts above stall
speed?
I teach all my students to slow fly with the entire range of
configurations for the particular aircraft they are flying. Gear up/
down, flaps up/down/in-between. I want them to be comfortable flying
at the very edge of the stall speeds and spend a lot of time
maneuvering right on the edge of a stall "nibble". It does more for
pilot confidence and ability than anything else I can think of. They
learn proper control useage and how their particular aircraft responds
while in the low speed areas. Playing with different angles of bank
while at low speeds and flying with a modicum of accuracy does a lot
for proper control use.
If you think about it, how many accidents occur in the low speed
spectrum? Either from a stall, or from a high sink rate on approach,
or poor control use during an emergency or off airport landing, or
something similar?
In my opinion, the pilot who is comfortable throughout the entire
speed range of their aircraft is a properly trained pilot and one who
will not get into an inadvertant stall, or spin.
What are your thoughts?

I think exposure to stalls is appropriate and you can get enough
practice keeping the wings level (with rudder) on the approach to the
stall during stall training. BUT why would you ever want to _fly_ so
close to stall? It's really dangerous to be just 10k above stall speed
in any part of the circuit and that speed is not good for anything in
real flight (terrible lift:drag and poor control response)... So
what's the point? Do you not worry about wind gusts/lulls at that
speed? I'd put this general idea in the fuel cut pull at takeoff bin
Perhaps a pilot who likes to fly at 10k above stall is an accident
waiting to happen? I don't see how extensive training at such low
speed can help you fly safely -quite the reverse. My natural mental
ASI is set to 65k!

An analogy would be the utility in driving a car on flat tyres... Yes
it can be controlled but watch out (you _will_ eventually spin out)!

My 2c

Cheers MC