Correct phraeseology

[Nathan Parker]

So you would rather teach a student to increase the angle off attack at low level instead of teaching them to lower flap when they know they can safely make the landing spot

Good grief man, people make mistakes. Teaching them to fix mistakes is what an instructor is supposed to do.

Aircraft stall when the critical angle of attack is exceeded - not at a given airspeed.

And in 1-g flight, the airspeed is a measure of AOA. Heck, at any steady g-level, airspeed measure AOA, but the airspeeds are just different from 1-g flight.

I'm giving you good information here. If you teach "never raise the flaps", you're teaching rote memorization, rather than giving a good understanding of how an airplane flies. What I'm telling you works; go up to altitude and experiment.

[VFE]

Where is the relative airflow coming from in a glide decent?

VFE.

[Nathan Parker]

Where is the relative airflow coming from in a glide decent?

Huh? The relative wind comes from the same direction at a particular airspeed. Climb, descent, doesn't matter.

To a rough approximation, an aircraft at a particular airspeed will have, say, a 6 degree AOA in level flight, descents, and climbs. This is slightly affected by the fact that in climbs and descents, part of the vertical forces supporting the airplane are provided by thrust and drag respectively, requiring less lift from the airplane. But in shallow climbs, the effect is small.

[Troy McClure]

You're on 'base' to a suitable field, select 2 stages flap. Turn 'final' towards the field and realise you're not quite going to make it because the wind is more than you allowed for. Sure, I'd remove the flap again.

And yes, I'd adjust the pitch as required to make sure I maintained a safe airspeed (that's a no-brainer isn't it?).

The main point is you'll always be lower now than had you not taken flap in the first place, but clean you'll now glide further because the drag is less.

If you're at 100 feet when you realise you're not going to make the field, you're screwed anyway. Just hope you picked a field with an alternative in the undershoot. Which of course you did, didn't you.....

[Oktas8]

I've observed two kinds of pilots.

Those who are willing to learn new techniques and those who are not.

Once upon a time I would have been in the latter group (the arrogance of inexperience I suppose). Happily not so much any more (usually ).

Keep up the good work Nathan.