I never had any of my students ever say they were " afraid " of stalling. However I ease them into the stall. They first will have had a good look at slow flight and the first stalls are simple power off straight ahead stalls which are pretty benign. What I want them to work on is the instinctive reaction to the stall with the wheel going forward, the power coming up and any yaw cancelled with the rudder.
When they get confident with that then we start with landing configuration and then move on to power on stalls and finally climbing turn stalls. But my message is consistent.
There is no time when you want the aircraft to stall so if it stalls you screwed up up. Yes you need to have to be able to recover from the stall but more important is to recognize the situations which are leading to a possible stall and do something to recover before the airplane stalls. Since most light aircraft inadvertent stalls start with the an undetected entry into slow flight, understanding what the aircraft feels like when it starts to get too slow is IMO one of the most important foundations skills. The best way to do this is IMO is to practice slow flight with the airspeed indicator covered up.
I think a big problem is that too many instructors scare students by either making the stall sound scarier then it is or do some accelerated aggressive stall on the first lesson.
I have a Canadian aerobatic instructor rating and strongly encourage PPL's to do an introductory aerobatic course to properly learn how to control the aircraft regardless of its attitude or orientation, but the purpose of the PPL should first and foremost be to teach the skills and knowledge to recognize and avoid the conditions that will likely lead to a loss of control.
Last edited by Big Pistons Forever; 4th August 2012 at 23:07.