Stick shacker test making bad muscle memory?
 

Our stick shake/pusher test has the CA hold the yoke while the shaker and pusher activates. I got to thinking.... if everyday a CA applies resistance to the pusher to keep it from slamming forward, could the test be imparting a bad muscle memory for a pusher in flight? I mean, if he/she is used to fighting the push, might he (in the heat of the moment) revert to pulling?

I just thought twice a year he is trained/reviews stall recovery, but daily he pulls during the test.


Any opinions?

Captains that hold the yoke during the entire stick shaker and stick pusher test might have an emotional-physiological connection with the vibrations.

Some AFMs have crews test the master disconnect switch (to see if they can override the pusher for instance).

If your captain holds it any longer than that, you should ask him and the shaker to "get a room";).

The last two airlines I was at before my current one, the book specifically said the captain was to try to hold back the yoke during the pusher to test the resistance of force. At American Eagle, the book even published an estimated weight the yoke should pull. I believe it was 40lbs of force, but this was a while ago...

The test was to be conducted before every flight. With 4 to 5 legs a day, maybe 100 legs a month I can see the other argument above that maybe one captain could accidentally hold the yoke back impulsively as they have done so many times.

thats a very logical assesment. and i know for a fact at eagle we were taught how to overcome the pusher... on the atr at least

I thought the thread starter said his/her captains were holding the yoke the entire time.

over???

I'm sorry, but that is ridiculous. There is no way that this task should in any way negate the automatic response to an imminent stall. Pushing is in our nature.

We are so ingrained to push that many in my class, including myself, found it very difficult to hold the aircraft in the shaker and let the engines take care of the airspeed during a stall recovery in the ERJ.

Stall recovery is one of the most automatic procedures in all of flying.

That's what I'd certainly like to think, 250. But I've never had an inadvertent stick shaker event so I can't say with certainty what my instinct would be. Have you?

there is no reason to ever have a stick shaker unless your in the sim. every one knows how slow you need to be going to even get close to a shaker. From every transport category airplane i have flown if your slower than 200-180 kt range your aoa is starting to get uncomfortably high and that is an OBVIOUS clue to start adding flaps or putting in power.

Not in the ERJ.

Stick shaker = stall warning horn.

What do I do when the stall warning horn goes of in a plane? I would easily tell you what my instinct would be. Not because I'm the best pilot in the world, but because its been beat into me. Actually, if I were sleep deprived, hungover, and had a porn magazine in my lap, I'd still have the same reaction. PUSH. Even though it's not the proper recovery technique for a jet, I'd be in a lot better shape than pulling up.

I've had a few...one during climb out in turbulence on profile airspeed (tells me to screw 200 KIAS when we're getting in the moderate bumps -- airspeed is our friend), and twice during flare in the -200 (both greasers, of course). If one were completely fatigued, I can see some initial confusion if you're not a particularly strong Pilot to begin with, so I think 250 has a point...BUT I don't care what they train me for, my butt will fly the plane out of anything...it's a shoot-from-the-hip, save your own ass, instinctual thing.