Originally Posted by
IO540
One hopes that none of your students stalls and spins on the base to final turn and kills themselves - while trying to work out what speed they have from the power and pitch
Sigh.....
Ok for those especially pedantic I will amplify my comment.
1) Since I have to be in the aircraft to cover the airspeed indicator I am hardly going to do in an attitude/configuration where there is any chance of the aircraft stalling. In the .000000001 % chance of a stall there will be no spin because I emphasize the importance of controlling yaw from the very beginning of stalling exercises
2) I cover the airspeed indicator with a little yellow sticky. It can be easily ripped off if it becomes desirable to see the ASI.
3) Since the point of the exercise is to convince the student that they can in fact make a very accurate estimate of the airspeed by looking out the windshield at the attitude and noting the power, in practice I show them ASI at regular intervals after asking them to tell me what they think the ASI is reading. They very quickly will be within 2 or 3 knots of the actual airspeed
4) Like everything else in flight training there is a time and a place for every exercise. If the student is allready overloaded with heavy ATC or other issues there is no value to this exercise. I wait for low traffic density and smooth air before introducing this exercise.