The STALL you can't get out of! SUPER-STALL

Did you know that there is a type of STALL an aircraft can get into which is almost impossible to get out of?
In todays video I will tell you about STALL in general and the infamous SUPER-STALL or Deep-stall. I will go through this video in five steps and at the end there will be a QUIZ, testing you on how much you have paid attention.
I hope you will enjoy this one and remember to subscribe and press the little notification-bell!

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A huge "Thank you!" to all the channels that was featured in todays video. Use the links below to see the full, awesome, versions!

hbykv (Stalled wing with and without vortex generators)

ATMFutureNow (F70 deep stall demo)

Pilot Report (Embraer 145 stick pusher test)

[jamesdavis]

Unfortunately, I'm revisiting this vid because of a crash today in Brazill of an ATR 72-500 in an unrecoverable stall. You explained it very well .

[Reman]

"This is your Captain speaking, We have a slight problem and need to quickly shift our centre of gravity forwards about 10 So, Free Champagne for the first 40 economy passengers to get to the cockpit door !!!". :)

[fredashay]

_"...stalling an aircraft is something we are trained to try to avoid at all costs..."_

Your flight instructor: _"Today you are going to practice going into stalls..."_

[EleanorPeterson]

Hi, Petter! There is one practical use for a super-stall that some of your viewers may not know about...

I used to fly 'free-flight' model aircraft when I was a kid. They were little (2' or 3' wingspan) gliders or rubber-powered planes built from balsa and covered with strong tissue paper. There was no radio control gear (it cost a fortune back then!) so the planes were self-stabilising and flew in a gentle turn all by themselves. Getting the 'trim' perfect was a big challenge, and taught you a LOT (unofficially) about aerodynamics!

Unless the weather conditions were absolutely calm, on a good flight of 6 or 7 minutes - despite being trimmed to fly in a constant gentle turn - the planes could drift a long, long way downwind. You kept fit by retrieving them; I used to chase after mine on my bike!

But occasionally you'd encounter a bubble or column of warm rising air, and then you were in trouble because the model would fly higher and higher, to hundreds or even thousands of feet, sometimes flying right out of sight, never to be seen again. It was exhilarating, but very sad because your lovely plane was gone for ever.

So we used to fit so-called 'de-thermalisers' to our models. These were simple mechanisms which, after a set time, released a catch on the rear of the tailplane that caused it to tilt upwards to about +70°, putting the model into a massive and unrecoverable super-stall. Even in a strong thermal, the fully-stalled aircraft would head for the ground, wings level, and land gently. De-thermalisers saved a lot of tears...

Unless the thermal was really strong, in which case the stalled model (which only weighed a few ounces), would continue to float up, up and away like a balloon; not actually flying, just tumbling and drifting. That didn't happen often, though. Maybe you were under a storm cloud, where you shouldn't have been flying in the first place!

Anyway, I just thought it was worth mentioning that, sometimes, a super-stall can be a really useful thing...

[blatherskite]

Stalled plane and "Terrain! Terrain! pull up!" - a really bad day! Understatement of the year!

[bertblankenstein]

This reminds me of an interview with Chuck Yeager: "the airplane was in a spin and had the aerodynamics of a set of keys. So I put it in a regular spin and pulled out of it." Just another day at the office.

[TheYodaman]

A pilot gets into a super stall.
Quickly YouTube’s how to get out of one
Finds out he’s totally screwed.

[HRGSXR]

Old B727 FE lived through this induced by Super Captain. Being an acro pilot and aware of our aft CG, I warned the Capt he was playing with fire flying trough stick shaker. As he lost control I grabbed FO yoke and turn full left to raise flight spoilers. This brought us nose down and the FO took over recovery. The Capt still will not talk to me, but I saved all of us. We were on departure climb out. You have to know the situation and keep your head. Great Talk.

[dionlindsay]

I wish I'd had a science teacher like you at school. They never seemed comfortable explaining stuff to us and I got bored and lazy. This is good to listen to - thanks!

[mariebcfhs]

Pilots: *fail to notice stall warnings*
Stick pushers: Fine, I'll do it myself

[FSKPilot]

What you said about the movement of the center of lift when the wing tips stall reminded me of a spin recovery technique that was developed for the F-14, which was notorious for entering unrecoverable flat spins. The technique involved sweeping the wings fully aft, thereby moving the center of lift aft of the center of gravity, causing the aircraft to nose down and fly out of the spin. It did, however, require at least ten thousand feet of altitude to execute.

[emty]

When I learned to fly my instructor felt it beneficial to teach me how an aircraft stalls, can enter a spin (spiral dive) and recovery. The flying school had several Tomahawks each with its own stall characteristics. I got pretty good at recovery and had no fear of the stall or dealing with it as it happens. After getting my PPL I decided to do an IMC rating and was taken out by a new stand in instructor I didn't know and in marginal conditions. He wanted to do recovery from unusual attitudes and we were in marginal conditions (I expect he wanted the money for the flight). The actual aircraft we took had a nasty 'super slippery' wing drop when it stalled. He instructed me to go to 5000 feet and I insisted on 7500 feet which he felt was excessive but I did it anyway. I also said the aircraft had a vicious wing drop but he just laughed. So there I was on with a power off nose high stall and the aircraft flipped into a spiral dive, it was rare you could catch it with this aircraft. He said nothing at all. I looked across and he was frozen, I recovered the aircraft. He said pretty much nothing for the next 15 minutes then said it was a bit marginal and to go back. Never saw him again. The PPL now apparently only teaches you to recognise an approaching stall and prevent it happening, very few get to experience the spiral dive which can be overwhelming when it happens.

[roichir]

In airplane design, T-Tails have to be in a certain ratio of height to distance from the center of lift. This ratio makes sure that the tailplane is above the wake area in a stall and so prevents deep stalls.
The same applies to rudders. The design of rudders must be so that a useful part of the rudder is still outside the wake area and can be effective in a stall situation.
Lessons leaned from the accidents in the past.


One thing you can also do in a stall is shifting the center of gravity. Like all passengers running forward. This is not very likely but could work.
I also works in a flat spin, which is another very dangerous situation you would not want to get into, because then all surfaces stall simultaneously. This is prevented usually by having the center of gravity before the center of lift by contruction and loading. Which is a requirement in designing an aircraft.


There is much more to it that has to be considered during design.

[tanyl]

12:22 - so basically "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I stall."


That is a scary thought.

[mcmillen]

I don’t know that you will see this comment as this is an older video, but you are an amazing teacher. Your understanding and passion for aviation and the physics behind it are second to nobody I have ever watched. I discovered your channel about a month before flying my family to Florida for my wedding/vacation and binge watched so many of your videos. I felt very comfortable flying having a decent understanding of what I would watch the wings do from takeoff to landing, the sound of the engines, hearing the hydraulic system (a320) Thank you for making all of the content you do. It’s motivating to get my pilots license

[crimsonhalo]

"The aircraft will fly like a leaf ... to the ground."
A big, unwieldy, fuel-filled leaf.

[karlchilders]

That is what took down AF447. Look at the accident report. Mentour, you know as well as I do that a loaded A330 can't climb at 7000fpm at any altitude, much less from cruise altitude. That aircraft was pushed upwards by a strong updraft in the embedded thunderstorm line, and after exiting that updraft they found themselves high, heavy, and at a positive AoA. The aircraft then entered a deep stall which of course blanked out the tail effectiveness. Add in the fact that super-cooled liquid (not ice pellets for god's sake..) entering the pitot tubes and freezing, which of course affects AoA and airspeed. The co-pilot didn't help things by continuing to pull up, which of course aggravated the situation and prevented recovery. If I am correct, there is a slight window of time where they could've rolled the aircraft to the right, quite a lot actually (certainly to the point of discomfort or alarm to passengers not familiar with flying or upset attitudes). The aircraft could then use the fuselage to slow it down some and hopefully recover. Outside of that, anything you'd do to recover would've oversped the aircraft horribly, or outright stressed the airframe to the point of breaking things or in-flight breakup. A sad situation for sure, but an example of a deep stall, and more importantly, an example of why we do NOT fly into thunderstorms.

[Booboobear-eoes]

Soviet aircraft utilized wing fences on the top of swept wings to maintain airflow. Military and aviation folks in the United States would joke that the wing fences were to keep the airflow from defecting off the wing.

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

There is a type of stall an aircraft can get into which is almost impossible to get out of? Wow, never knew until now

[CardiffDrumAndBass]

“This is a very very bad situation”
You can say that again - Jesus Christ, that is some scary stuff. 😱