Lesson 5, To first solo

Slow down

Flight: Out West

FAA Detroit sectional, 29 OCT 2026 edition. For briefing, not for navigation: fly from the current chart. Tap the chart to open it full size.

Today's flight

A Saturday, coming home from the practice area, and the tower says "follow the Cessna on a two mile final." That Cessna is slower than you. You will have to fly slowly in the pattern, turn from base to final close to the ground, and know when slow has become too slow and it is time to go around instead. After this lesson, that call is easy, and nothing about the slow end of your airplane is a mystery.

You learn it over two flights, at a safe altitude over the practice area where a mistake costs only altitude. The first flight is slow flight and stalls straight ahead. The second adds stalls in turns, steep turns, the stalls that catch pilots by surprise, and the base-to-final turn flown up high.

Every flight

Before every flight

P
Pilot. Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE:
- Illness
- Medication
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Fatigue
- Emotion, and eating
Aircraft. Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
V
Environment. What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route:
- NOTAMs and TFRs
- Weather, against your minimums
- Known ATC delays
- Runway lengths
- Alternates
- Fuel required, with reserve
- Takeoff and landing distances
- Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
- The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
External pressures. What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
If it goes wrong. The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
Who flies. Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.

Who runs it today: You, with the instructor's prompts.

Deeper today: Who flies. For stall practice you brief who does what before every maneuver: who recovers, what "I have the flight controls" means mid-maneuver, and what you do if a stall starts to turn into a spin. Aircraft goes deeper too: today's weight compared with the handbook's limits, because weight changes the stall speed and the maneuvering speed.

Recall

From earlier lessons

What are the steps to change from a climb to level flight?
Reveal answer
Start a little before the target altitude, lower the nose to the level picture, let the speed build, set cruise power, then trim.
Another airplane is converging from your right at your altitude. Who gives way?
Reveal answer
You do. The airplane on the right has the right of way (91.113(d)), so you change course, normally behind it.
Where does the Class B end on the way to the practice area, and where do you read it?
Reveal answer
Close to the west and north of KARB. Always from the current chart, in your limits block.
Which instruments does the vacuum pump drive in most trainers, and which instrument usually keeps working if it fails?
Reveal answer
The attitude and heading indicators. The turn coordinator is usually electric, so it still works.

Why Every stall, at any speed and in any attitude, is the wing passing its critical angle of attack.

Angle of attack is what stalls

Angle of attack: the angle between the wing and the air, not the nose and the horizon.
Past the critical angle, the air separates from the wing and lift drops.
The speed it happens at changes with weight and bank. The angle doesn't.
The only way out: reduce the angle of attack. Power and level wings come after.

Why Final approach, a slow airplane ahead, or a climb over obstacles all mean flying slowly with control, close to the stall but not in it.

Slow flight

Slow, controlled, and no stall warning.
Pitch for airspeed, power for altitude.
Soft controls, more rudder and more power than you expect.
Up high: the whole maneuver at least 1,500 feet above the ground.

Why Recognizing a stall early and recovering by reflex is what keeps a slow mistake near the ground from becoming an accident.

Stalls, power off and power on

Power off is the approach to land. Power on is the takeoff and climb.
The cues: stall warning, buffet, soft controls, a high nose, a sink you feel.
Recover: angle of attack down first, then full power, wings level, climb.
Clearing turns first, and at least 1,500 feet above the ground.

Why Most real stalls happen in a turn: climbing out after takeoff, or turning from base to final.

Stalls in a turn

The same stalls, entered in a turn of no more than about 20 degrees of bank.
Hold the bank steady as it slows. A creeping bank is the common error.
Recover the same way: angle of attack first, then roll level, coordinated.
Don't aim for a heading. Recovering is the point.

Why Some stalls come from how you recover, how hard you pull, or how you go around, and knowing them is what stops them.

The stalls that surprise pilots

Secondary stall: pulling up too soon after a recovery stalls it again.
Accelerated stall: a hard pull or a steep turn stalls the wing at a higher speed.
Elevator trim stall: full power on a go-around, trimmed nose up, and the nose rears up.
Cross-control stall: the skidding turn to final, on the spins slide.
The cure for all of them: lower the nose and fly the pitch you want.

Why The same airplane stalls at a higher speed when it is heavier or turning steeply, which is why turns near the ground deserve respect.

Weight, bank and load factor

A level turn needs more lift: about 1.4 G at 45 degrees and 2 G at 60.
Stall speed rises with it: about 19 percent higher at 45 degrees, 41 percent at 60.
Maneuvering speed goes down as weight goes down. Know today's weight.
These are physics, any airplane. Your airplane's speeds are in its handbook.

Why A steep turn shows you load factor and the airplane's tendency to keep rolling, up close and at a safe altitude.

Steep turns

About 45 degrees of bank, coordinated, a full 360 each way.
At the handbook's speed, or no faster than maneuvering speed.
At about 45 degrees it wants to keep rolling: hold a little opposite aileron.
More back pressure holds the altitude. Roll out about 20 degrees early.
More bank turns you faster and tighter; more speed makes the circle bigger.

Why A stall with yaw becomes a spin, and the base-to-final turn is where the setup for one happens most often.

Spins and the base-to-final turn

A spin is a stall plus yaw: one wing more stalled than the other.
Four phases: entry, incipient, developed, recovery. Catch it at entry.
The trap: overshoot final, add bottom rudder, hold the high wing up, pull.
The fix for an overshoot is a go-around, not a tighter turn.
Spin recovery and whether spins are allowed: your handbook. Never assume.

Why The handbook is the airplane's own rule book, and today is your first look at the two sections that set its limits.

Your handbook's limitations and performance

Limitations: airspeed limits and their colored arcs, weights, approved maneuvers, placards.
Performance: the stall speed chart, takeoff and landing, climb and cruise.
Read the notes under each chart: they say what the numbers assume.
Look the numbers up every time, and say where they came from.

A real accident

In July 2013, a flight instructor and a student pilot were killed when their Taylorcraft BC12-65, a two-seat trainer, crashed into woods less than half a mile from runway 27 at Dalton Airport (3DA), Flushing, Michigan, on a flying club instructional flight. The student had about 7 hours; the instructor had about 9,850. A security camera showed the airplane in a nose-high left turn at a moderate bank where the turn from base to final would be made; then the nose dropped and the bank steepened. The NTSB found no mechanical problem, and found the probable cause was the student's failure to maintain airspeed during the landing approach, which led to a stall and spin, and the instructor's failure to monitor the approach and act before the stall. The decision point was early in that turn: nose high and slowing means lower the nose, shallow the bank, and go around if the turn won't work. Today you feel that turn at altitude, and you learn that a very experienced instructor in the other seat is not a safety net. NTSB report CEN13FA416

Your calls

Decision points

The altitude you choose for each maneuver, so the whole thing ends at least 1,500 feet above the ground and under any airspace above you.
When slow has become too slow: lower the nose or add power now, or roll out and start again.
In the simulated base-to-final turn: if you overshoot, you go around instead of tightening the turn.
On the way home, if the instructor gives you a slow airplane to follow: slow down, ask for a wider pattern, or go around. You choose, and say why.

The whole flight

Also on this flight

Part of the flight	Who
Every-flight routine	You, with prompts
Limits block from the current chart	You
Weight compared with the handbook's limits	You; the instructor checks
Preflight, start, taxi, runup	You, with the checklist
Radio calls	Instructor
Takeoff	Instructor; you follow on the controls
Climb out and departure past the Class B edge	You fly
First flight: clearing turns and slow flight, holding altitude for at least two minutes with turns each way	You fly; the instructor demonstrates first
First flight: power-off and power-on stalls straight ahead, at least three of each, until two in a row are recovered nose first without a prompt	You fly; the instructor demonstrates first
Second flight: power-off and power-on stalls in a turn, at least two each way	You fly
Second flight: secondary, accelerated and elevator trim stalls	Instructor demonstrates; you follow on the controls and call the recovery
Second flight: steep turns, at least two each way	You fly
Second flight: the base-to-final turn at altitude, with an overshoot and a go-around, at least twice	You fly
Back toward KARB	You fly
Pattern and landing	Instructor; you follow on the controls and call out airspeed
After landing, securing, refueling, check in	You
Debrief	Both, you first

The standard

Ready to move on when

You fly slow flight with the airplane under control and no stall warning, holding altitude with power and airspeed with pitch.
You recognize the cues of a stall coming and recover from power-off and power-on stalls, straight and in turns, promptly, angle of attack first, without being told.
You can explain secondary, accelerated, elevator trim and cross-control stalls: what causes each and how to stop it.
You fly a steep turn each way, coordinated, with the altitude close to where you started, and can say why the airplane wants to overbank and what bank and speed do to the turn.
You can name the phases of a spin, explain what causes one and how to stay out of it, and give your airplane's spin recovery from the handbook.
You can find the stall speed chart, maneuvering speed and approved maneuvers in your handbook.
At first the standard is safe and recognized, not ACS tolerances; the Private Pilot ACS tasks VII.A to VII.D, V.A and I.F are the goal by the checkride.

At home, before the next flight

Chair fly it

Before the second flight: in Maintaining Aircraft Control (Airplane Flying Handbook, chapter 5), read Secondary Stall, Accelerated Stalls, Cross-Control Stall, Elevator Trim Stall and the four spin phases; and in Performance Maneuvers (chapter 10), the Steep Turns section.
Before lesson 6: read your model's traffic pattern sheet from the club (Cessna 152, Cessna 172), and in AIM chapter 4, section 3, paragraphs 4-3-2 (airports with a tower), 4-3-3 (traffic patterns) and 4-3-13 (light signals).
Look up KARB in the current Chart Supplement: runways, tower frequency and hours, and ground control.
Chair fly the pattern at KARB: departure, crosswind, downwind, base, final. Say each radio call out loud, from calling ground to clearing the runway.
Before each flight, check the squawks and the weather for your booked airplane.

After the flight

Debrief

You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.

Your first stall, on purpose and recovered by you: what did the airplane feel like just before it?
When did slow start to feel too slow, and what did you do about it?
In the base-to-final turn up high, what would have made you go around?

Notes for teaching this lesson

Before the flight

Brief every maneuver on the ground: entry, what the student will feel, recovery, and who recovers if it goes wrong. Before solo nothing is a surprise.
First flight: brief the slides through Stalls, power off and power on, plus Weight, bank and load factor. Second flight: Stalls in a turn, The stalls that surprise pilots, Steep turns and Spins.
Check the weight, the handbook's limitations and whether intentional spins are approved in this airplane. This lesson demonstrates spin awareness; it doesn't require a spin.
The club's Slow Flight and Stall Series sheet sets slow flight near the stall horn. This course teaches the ACS (6C) standard instead: slow flight without a stall warning (VII.A), finished no lower than 1,500 feet above the ground. Turning stalls are flown at a bank of no more than 20 degrees, plus or minus 10 (VII.B.S6, VII.C.S6).
Background, from the Airplane Flying Handbook: secondary, accelerated and elevator trim stalls are demonstration-only for private applicants (chapter 5). Accelerated stalls are flown with flaps up, at about 45 degrees of bank, never above maneuvering speed. The spin's four phases are entry, incipient, developed and recovery. Overbanking tendency (opposite aileron at about 45 degrees of bank or more) is in chapter 3, and the rollout lead of about half the bank angle in chapter 10. Rate and radius of turn are in the PHAK's Aerodynamics of Flight chapter. The load factor and stall speed percentages are physics (1/cos of the bank, and its square root).

In the air

Clear the area with turns before every maneuver, and choose an altitude that ends the maneuver at least 1,500 feet above the ground. Watch for 75G traffic and the Chelsea hospital helipad.
Demonstrate first, then let the student fly. Keep the first stalls gentle, wings level, straight ahead.
Common errors: recovering with power before lowering the nose, using aileron to pick up a dropping wing, too little rudder in slow flight, letting the bank creep in a turning stall, staring at the airspeed indicator instead of the nose and the horizon, and losing altitude as a steep turn overbanks.
Fly the base-to-final turn at altitude: a 90-degree descending turn onto an imaginary final, then an overshoot, so the student feels the pull to tighten it and practices the go-around instead.
If it isn't working (the student flinches or freezes in stalls), go back to slow flight and approaches to the stall, recovering at the first buffet, until they are relaxed. Add the full stall when they ask for it.

Curveballs

All briefed before the flight, with the maneuver, the altitude and who recovers.

A stall with a wing drop: you hold a little rudder in the entry so one wing goes first, and the student recovers with angle of attack first and rudder, not aileron.
A slow airplane ahead, simulated at altitude: "Slow to approach speed and hold your altitude behind it."
An elevator trim stall setup: you trim nose up for the approach, and the student adds full power for a go-around and holds the nose down.
A steep turn with a rollout on a heading you name, not the entry heading.
The overshot base-to-final at altitude, to see whether the student goes around without being asked.

After the flight

Many students find stalls uncomfortable. Ask how they felt and say that it gets better with repetition. End on a maneuver they flew well.
Ask what caught each error (the horn, the buffet, the instructor) and what should have caught it sooner.
If either flight leaves recovery short of a reflex, repeat it. Keep a few stalls in the next flights until it is.