NO! ACS Focus Team Slow Flight and Other FAQs The ACS Focus Team has been asked many questions about the topic of slow flight. The new FAA SAFO highlights this controversy and presents the FAA position. There are many highly qualified SAFE members out there! a. 2. There’s the buffet. David St. George is an FAA DPE (Sport to Multi ATP) and a Part 135 charter pilot flying the Pilatus PC-12 in the NYC area. If you hear the horn, make a correction. Does the ACS Focus Team have an e-mail address? ). Slow flight must now be accomplished at a speed higher than MCA or Minimum Controllable Airspeed (a speed at which the stall horn is continuously activated). The FAA does not want pilots in training flying with the stall warning horn blaring with the supposition this will lead to ignoring this critical warning device. Capt. To recap, for slow flight, fly at an airspeed just above the stall warning. New stimulus bill has some good news for airlines. For a private pilot, that might sound something like this, “There’s the horn. As most flight instructors know the FAA recently changed the requirements for slow flight in the private pilot ACS. I have seen this numerous times where a pilot inadvertently stalls the airplane at high altitude and reacts to the stall warning horn by trying to power-out of the stall while releasing little or no elevator back pressure. Beyond the “Stupid Pilot” View of Safety! Task A. Its sole purpose is literally to activate during slow flight. Pre-maneuver checklist . This, however, is not normally trained in the air transport industry. For years, the testing standard for slow flight stated that the applicant must “establish and maintain an airspeed at which any further increase in angle of attack, increase in load factor, or reduction in power, would result in an immediate stall.”  The new ACS changes the words immediate stall to read stall warning. SAFEblog.org “Super Pilots!” Enjoy a wonderful, Any DPE can be immediately “fired” for “no c, See today’s (midweek) SAFEblog (.org) DPEs can b, FAA revises guidance on COVID vaccine; 48 hour wai, Great meet-up with CFi Bootcamp at KLAL event toda. But if it is activated, the pilot is expected to take prompt and positive stall recovery measures. Our CFI's have been teaching it as slowing down until you hear the stall horn and then increasing about 5-10 knots (and they grumble that it's not really slow flight anymore, just "sorta" slow flight). Although no one likes change, when I hear stories like that, I realize that the new ACS is a safer standard. The ACS just says 5-10 knots above 1G stall speeds. The stall warning horn could clearly be heard from the ground as the pilot circled. The stall warning horn should be on during slow flight. There’s the full stall.”  Recover. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Slow flight is flight at anything less than normal cruise, like the speeds one might normally use in the pattern. The ATP approach to stall recovery training scenario both involve an imminent stall at low altitude, as on final approach, and recovery dictates a minimum loss of altitude. One of the videos they watched was of a gentleman who was proposing to his girlfriend. Leveraging Learning Technology in Aviation! But you should make a correction so that the horn does not continue to sound. The difference is that now, the applicant is required to speak during the maneuver and announce the stall indications as they happen. Methinks the promulgator of this FAA policy has forgotten how to fly anything smaller than an airline jet. Maneuvering During Slow Flight References FAA-H-8083-2, FAA-H-8083-3; POH/AFM Objective To determine that the applicant exhibits satisfactory knowledge, risk management, and skills associated with maneuvering during slow flight. I fear the current specification will not allow slow flight to be deep enough into the induced drag curve to demonstrate “mushing with power” where you must lower the nose to reduce drag and obtain a climb (that is an eye-opener) It takes a very competent educator to handle this training correctly and build understanding (and why SAFE works hard to improve aviation educator excellence) Thanks for your comments! So the FAA wants to inculcate in every student pilot an automatic ‘push the stick forward’ response to every bleating of a stall warning horn. David started flying at 16 and has logged over 15,000 hours. As early as 1989, I became increasingly concerned that our pilot training at my airline company as it did not include stall recovery at altitude and feared that the stall training scenario at low altitude would lead to a negative habit transfer if a pilot became confronted with a stall warning at high altitude. “The ACS now specifies slow flight as, an airspeed, approximately 5 – 10 knots above the 1G stall speed, at which the airplane is capable of maintaining controlled flight without activating a stall warning.”. As far as stalls go, the ACS hasn’t changed things all that much. In other words, when an applicant performs slow flight, he or she must not allow the stall horn to blare during the maneuver. I recently had a discussion with one of the FAA representatives who took part in a committee to increase general aviation safety. I fear, however, that we have a systemic flaw in the standard slow flight and stall recovery technique which the FAA requires of ATP pilots. Pilots instinctively react to unfamiliar situations in the manner in which they were trained. Renslow. They meet on September 14th (that should be an interesting meeting…) Have fun, fly safely, and best wishes for a wonderful holiday weekend. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Pretty simple right? If a pilot never experiences and trains in this critical phase of flight their reaction might be an inappropriate panic response like Cpt. A private pilot checkride still requires a full stall break whereas a commercial checkride requires that the applicant recover at the first indication of a stall, i.e. When the ACS was issued, it contained language that did not allow activation of the stall warning horn to occur for successful completion of the task. He owns a 1946 7AC Aeronca Champ and wrote the SAFE Toolkit app. When we practice slow flight with the stall warning continuously going off, we learn to ignore the stall warning horn. Background: Loss of control in flight continues to … One area that really causes some confusion is the new slow flight and stall standard. “There’s the horn.”  Recover. Will I fail if the stall horn sounds during slow flight on a checkride? Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you're looking for. There seems to be an epidemic of commercial airliners and military aircraft that have crashed as a result of a pilot induced stall/upset and improper recovery from the stalled condition. For now, only the private pilot and airplane instrument rating checkrides employ the ACS, but more are coming. Can anyone clarify the speed that the examiner is going to be looking for on the checkride? Even during simulated emergencies, like an engine failure, there is no reason to rush into any… “Hope, Luck, Appearance” – Dangerous Delusions! An accident case in point is Colgan Air Flight 3407 where the pilot of a Dash 8 Q400 reacted to a stall warning while the aircraft was in the approach configuration and at about 2300 feet, plenty of altitude to recover if only the pilot had pushed rather than pulled the yoke forward. ». evaluation standards for the slow flight task and certain stall tasks in the Private Pilot – Airplane ACS (FAA-S-ACS-6A) and the Commercial Pilot – Airplane ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7), which will be effective June 12, 2017. Planning (not “Plans”) – Essential to Safety. If you land with a nice nose high attitude it starts to get concerned yelling “stall” and some pilots have even gotten the “shaker and pusher” to their peril. Upset Recovery Training (URT) goes a long way to give pilots the experiences they would not otherwise see and allows valuable insights into how airplanes tend to behave when operating outside of their normal operating envelope. ... FAA ACS - Slow Flight and Stalls (.pdf) FAA AFH Chap. 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