Originally Posted by
n5296s
@Genghis... normally I have great respect for everything you say. But in this case I'm having a bit of difficulty. There is no way that this is an aerobatic manoeuvre, defined (by the FAA at least) as "an intentional maneuver involving an abrupt change in an aircraft's attitude, an abnormal attitude, or abnormal acceleration, not necessary for normal flight". The only clause which could possibly apply would be "abnormal attitude" (i.e. AoA beyond the critical point) but then that applies to any stall which would make all stalls aerobatic.
As for needing an aerobatic aircraft... this is a strictly 1G manoeuvre. If you get it badly wrong it becomes the very beginning of an incipient spin, but instantly corrected by releasing the stick/yoke. I'm NOT suggesting that pre-PPL pilots go out and do this on their own, but with an instructor who is comfortable with it (including recovery from a botched one). My 182 flies it like a pussy cat, you barely need to touch the pedals. Generally, it's a great demonstration that a stall is NOT instant death, that in fact a plane can be flown stably in a stall right down to flare altitude. (Apparently A330s fly it very nicely too, though that's probably not the best aircraft to try it in).
I guess this is the UK "not in front of the children" mentality. But anything which makes pilots more comfortable in case they find themselves in odd situations is a good idea.
(1) I don't work for Cessna, but I have talked over the years to their Test Pilots, and run certification programmes on numerous light aeroplanes. I am quite clear that it is not normally tested - so the potential risks have almost certainly not been explored during flight test of your C182 or numerous similar non-aerobatic types.
(2) I do know my way around FAR-23, and doubt that Cessna have gone substantially outside that. FAR-23 does not include a requirement to stress any part of the aeroplane for this manoeuvre. It is possible that the horizontal stabiliser is seeing loads during the falling leaf that were never considered during certification and are outside the "limit case".
(3) The first instinct of any pilot reaching the stall should be to recover. Any training practice that instead of that becomes "ooh, that's interesting, let's see what happens if we stay here", is not creating the right attitude.
Those are my reasons. (2) is probably the reasons that stalling has I think been banned in the B737 - Boeing realised it was beyond the FAR-25 design cases, which are substantially the same as the ones in FAR-23.
G