Originally Posted by
hans brinker
...............Doing full stalls doesn't improve safety nearly as much as keeping aircraft out of stalls.
I am not sure that is true. Obviously modern passenger jet flying should never get anywhere near a stall or a spin. But, If a pilot has never experienced a full stall or a spin, then they haven’t practiced overcoming the natural (incorrect) reaction, nor can they develop full confidence in their ability to recover. This robs them of vital knowledge about their ability to control an aircraft in challenging conditions.
In a fully developed stall or spin, the first time you ever do it, there is no way you want to push forward on the stick - the instinct is to pull up, but you
must push forward to unstall the wing in order to recover. A bit like skiing - you gain control when you lean forwards, but when you are learning to ski, the
last thing you want to do when out of control whizzing down a slope is to lean forwards !
Without actually entering and recovering from such manoeuvres, there is no guarantee that you will overcome your natural, (and incorrect) instinct. The correct recovery needs to be practised and become a reflex - there is not time to think, “ah, OK, a stall, now what did my instructor say I had to do to recover?”
I wonder if F/O Bonin on AF447 had ever practiced full stalls? I suspect not.