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AviationPower-on stalls
In the takeoff, departure or cruise configuration, with at least 65 percent power, you raise the nose until the airplane stalls, recover at once with the manufacturer's procedure and return to the altitude the examiner gives you. It is Task C of Area VII, Slow Flight and Stalls, in the FAA Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards, the checkride every private pilot flies.
Free to startThe steps
- Clear the area.
- Select an entry altitude that lets you finish the task no lower than 1,500 feet above the ground in a single-engine airplane, or 3,000 feet in a multiengine airplane.
- Set the takeoff, departure or cruise configuration the examiner specifies, and keep coordinated flight through the maneuver.
- Set the power the examiner assigns, no less than 65 percent.
- Move smoothly from the takeoff or departure attitude to the pitch attitude that induces a stall.
- Hold a specified heading within 10 degrees in straight flight, or a specified bank of no more than 20 degrees, within 10 degrees, in a turn, while inducing the stall.
- Acknowledge the cues of the coming stall, then recover promptly after a full stall.
- Recover as the Pilot's Operating Handbook or Flight Manual says.
- Configure the airplane as the manufacturer recommends and accelerate to VX or VY.
- Return to the altitude, heading and airspeed the examiner specifies.
- Use single-pilot resource management, or crew resource management, as appropriate.
Safety rules that stop the station
- The examiner does not set a fixed altitude loss for the recovery, and does not require you to hold altitude while recovering.
- In some high-performance airplanes the power may be set below the guideline to keep the nose below 30 degrees up.
- Any action, or lack of action, that makes the examiner step in to keep the flight safe is unsatisfactory.
- Not clearing the area with a proper visual scan before and during the maneuver is unsatisfactory.
- Consistently exceeding the tolerances of the task, or not correcting promptly when you exceed them, is unsatisfactory.
To pass
- Coordinated flight, heading within 10 degrees or bank within 10 degrees of the one given, a prompt recovery after the full stall by the handbook, and back to the examiner's altitude, heading and speed.
- Know the aerodynamics of stalls in each configuration, stall characteristics by airplane design and how to recognize a stall, what leads to a power-on stall and how to prevent it, the fundamentals of stall recovery, and the risks of an inadvertent stall or spin, the limits of stall warning indicators, stall warnings in normal flight, secondary, accelerated, elevator trim and cross-control stalls, turbulence, microbursts and high density altitude, collision and distractions.
- Missing the standard on this task fails the task and its area of operation.
Official source
Federal · FAA Private Pilot ACS
Private Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards (FAA-S-ACS-6C)
The FAA publishes the Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards free: every task of the checkride with its knowledge, risks and tolerances.
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