Brian Z

Today I was up solo getting ready for my PPL practical and I had some issues with the power-on stall. I just could not keep the airplane coordinated. I am training in a 172SP. At 55kts I would add full power and add right rudder to counter the left turn tendancies. It all went well in the beginning, but after a few seconds I could not hold the heading. I cannot recall what way the plane was turning. I do recall that it turned when I had the ball caged, but in straight flight I was uncoodinated. The funny thing is the last few times I did these with my instructor I was within 5* if my initial heading. I tried it three times today and did not get one I would call satisfactory and I was getting frustated. So I let it be so not to ruin the rest of the flight. Any ideas on where I was going wrong?

(Highstart)

without your instructor in the right seat, the airplane is probably going to want to turn left a little more than usual do to the cg being more left than usual. might this be your problem?

Cubdriver

Set your heading to be into the prevailing winds. Use local smoke or water patterns to help decide what the winds are. If there is a crosswind, the plane will follow it more and more as the airspeed drops and you will have trouble holding heading, especially if you use 100% power. Some DE's do not require 100% power, I think 60% is what many of them prefer because it brings on the stall sooner and makes the drill easier and the break weaker. You could try doing the stalls on a very quiet day and see if that helps with the problem. Coordinate carefully glancing between the DG and the ball quickly, correct quickly when one deviates.

Also do not forget the clearing turns, it's an instant fail with many DE's not to do them. They will usually pardon forgetting to do one or two, but you should show that you care about it before doing any non-selfclearing manuever, especially when beginning your manuevers. If you say, "I would do a clearing turn before beginning this maneuver" and the DE does not respond with anything like, "that's allright just go ahead and do the manuever" then do the clearing turn even if it seems repetitive.

100LL

You mention flying a 172SP; if it is so equipped and your not doing it already, from my understanding there should be a heading "bug" on the HI. Set that to your desired heading to use as a reference. Also don't forget to look outside.
Next, in power on stalls as long as your not using ailerons, rudder is all you need to prevent turns.

Not sure if any of that helped.

ryane946

I do not recommend doing much of your private solo.
Most my students have 10-11 hours of solo (minimum is 10 hours). Usually they have about 6 hours of solo xc, and another 4 hours of solo TO's/landings.

Practicing maneuvers is best done with an instructor on board. They are there to find your faults, bring them to your attention, and make yourself a better pilot by learning from those mistakes. Even if they aren't there to coach you (eg. playing examiner), they can still debrief you at the end of the maneuveras.

My advice is get your instructor and go for an hour of practice doing power on stalls. I don't recommend doing any of this solo. You just don't learn anything.

Cubdriver

This is a good point. Your instructor should hopefully have some idea why you can't hold headings adequately in a stall. I think your problem is you are not selecting a viable entry heading on windy days, but this is just a guess. If you are not setting up accurately into the wind, something which takes some skill in itself, you will get blown off heading like any other time. I do not think that the plane being an SP has anything to do with it because SP's have no aerodynamic differences from older 172s.

aerodarts

to develop coordination practice flying at minimum controllable airspeed. Do this with and without flaps and while climbing, decending, straight and level and turns and combinations thereof. Select a visual reference point and do not stare at the heading indicator. Look at your wing tips etc.
Have fun!

Brian Z

I did exactly that. I realized I was not getting it right and I had concerns with entering a spin due to being uncoodinated so that is why I stopped doing that maneuver.

Thanks all. I understand the concern with doing maneuvers solo. That lesson was my last one in the before the final check. It was also the only one where the student does stalls solo.

In the previous training I usually did stalls to either N or S magnetic and that is how I was doing them that day. The wind was 140@6 true. With the local 10*E variation I had some crosswind. I think it was a mix of the crosswind and the different CG. I went up with my instructor today to polish up short/soft landings and we did a few power-on stalls and they were perfect with the wind 10* off the nose.

Brian Z

I forgot to to add. I did get to follow a B-17 in the pattern yesterday. That was a good end of the day.

aerodarts

when an airplane stalls with full power.......it is not going to behave docile!
Remember the objective when demostrating a take off and departure stall...... and that is to recongize it and prevent it long before it happens.

Now when it does stall, sometimes it is going to break left or right even if the ball is centered and the wind is on the nose, and when it does, just stick to the procedure you have been taught to recover and you are not going to end up spinning into the ground. The stall spin accident happens when a pilot is not aware of what is getting ready to occur and they are low and slow and do not have enough altitude to recover.....The key is not to become distracted and learn the cues long before the stall ever happens.....