Big Beer Belly
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2004
- Posts
- 756
I concur with your thoughts... sometimes the forest is lost through the trees.The concepts are basic but perhaps the techniques taught and practiced are not the safest options.
The altitude standards for recovering from a stall for an ATP certificate are +/- 100'. The only reason I see to not lose more than 100' if you were to stall an aircraft by mistake in an operational setting (not training) is if you were 100' from the ground, a situation that is possible, though only happens typically twice per flight very briefly. Conversely, there will never be terrain above you so why does it matter if you recover within 100' above you stalled altitude.
What if we trained to lose 500' in a stall and climb to 1000' above the initial altitude? Seems like this is a more likely scenario outside of the training environment. We could still practice the old way (flying right at Critical AoA when we know the stall is coming), but we would be taught that it is acceptable to lose altitude when lowering the AoA. This maneuver requires much less precision and, frankly, much less skill, but a safe outcome would still be assured, maybe more so.
Thoughts...
Given that, I'm honestly blown away at the cause of this accident. I had the false assumption that by the time two pilots reach a 121 airline something as simple as basic airspeed awareness is akin to second nature. :angryfire
This aircraft was not on fire, pieces of it hadn't been shot off, there was no particular terrain threat, no terrorists in the cabin attempting to gain access... in short, there were no extenuating circumstances that would warrant sufficient distraction to allow this condition to develop. THEN, regardless of how they arrived in an approach to stall condition, I'm again left speechless that the basic increase power, relax back pressure was substituted with a horrendous +30 pitch change as the stick shaker is activating. All I can say is, "WOW!"... and NOT a good wow.
My reaction to the cause of this accident may come across as harsh, but I EXPECT MORE of the pilots flying my loved ones. Many accidents that I read about leave me with the feeling that "there but the grace of God go I"... but this accident does not. I think it best that I conclude my remarks at this point. Thanks for the info....
BBB