Power-On Stalls

• Entry altitude allowing completion no lower than 1,500 ft AGL (ASEL/ASES) or 3,000 ft AGL (AMEL/AMES) (CA.VII.C.S2)
• Power no less than 65 percent (CA.VII.C.S4)
• Straight flight: heading ±10°
• Turning flight: bank not to exceed 20°, ±10°, held until the stall (CA.VII.C.S6)
• Recover at the first indication or after a full stall, as specified (CA.VII.C.S8), then configure per the manufacturer and accelerate to Vx or Vy (CA.VII.C.S9)

Source: CA.VII.C.S4 sets a floor of no less than 65 percent power — a commercial-specific requirement that makes the stall a genuine departure stall rather than a gentle deceleration.

Exception: the ACS itself allows less in some high-performance airplanes, to keep pitch attitudes under 30° nose-up (FAA-S-ACS-7B, Appendix 2). Know your airplane's number and be ready to justify it.

Two reasons worth giving. Operationally, an extreme nose-high attitude makes the break aggressive, hides traffic, and risks a tail strike on any low-altitude repetition. Regulatorily, 91.307(c) applies when you are carrying any person other than a crewmember: unless each occupant wears an approved parachute, no such flight may execute an intentional maneuver exceeding a 60° bank or a nose-up or nose-down attitude of 30° relative to the horizon. Solo or crew-only flight is outside (c) entirely, and 91.307(d) further excepts flight tests for a certificate or rating and spins and other maneuvers required by the regulations when given by a certificated flight instructor. Keeping the pitch inside 30° keeps the maneuver uncontroversial.

The takeoff, departure, or cruise configuration (CA.VII.C.S3) — the same three the private ACS allows (PA.VII.C.S3), so this is not a standards delta, but the cruise/clean case is the one most applicants have simply flown least. The AFH backs this up: power-on stalls should be practiced in the takeoff configuration and clean, so you have seen all the takeoff and climb configurations (AFH ch. 5). Whatever is selected, coordinated flight throughout is part of the skill.

1. Establish the takeoff or climb configuration.
2. Slow to normal lift-off speed while continuing to clear the area.
3. Set takeoff or the recommended climb power while establishing a climb attitude.
4. Smoothly raise the nose to the attitude that induces the stall (AFH ch. 5).

Slow before advancing the throttle — advancing power too early means holding an excessively steep nose-up attitude for a long time before the stall arrives.

As airspeed decreases you move the elevator progressively further back while simultaneously adding right rudder, holding the climb attitude until the full stall (AFH ch. 5). At high power and high AOA the left-turning tendencies are at their maximum. An uncoordinated break here is the textbook spin entry — a stall with yaw is a spin (AFH ch. 5).

Recognize the stall and act without delay:

1. Reduce AOA with as much nose-down input as required to eliminate the stall warning.
2. Level the wings with ailerons coordinated with rudder.
3. Smoothly advance power as needed — since the throttle is already at the climb setting, this may simply mean confirming the power (AFH ch. 5).
4. Return to the desired flightpath and accelerate to Vx or Vy (CA.VII.C.S9).

No. The evaluation criteria for a recovery from an approach to stall do not mandate a predetermined value for altitude loss, nor do they require maintaining altitude during recovery (FAA-S-ACS-7B, Appendix 2). Prioritizing altitude over AOA is exactly the error the FAA rewrote these criteria to stop.

It is what happens on a go-around when full power is applied with the airplane still trimmed nose-up for the approach glide and the pilot does not maintain positive control. The combined propwash over the tail and nose-up trim make the nose rise sharply and yaw left, driving the pitch above the normal climb attitude (AFH ch. 5).

Prevent it by:

• Anticipating the trim force
• Applying power smoothly
• Holding the attitude with forward pressure
• Re-trimming

It is a demonstration-only maneuver — only flight instructor applicants perform it.

• Pitching to an excessively nose-high attitude immediately after takeoff
• A climbing turn flown with the nose up and the ball out
• Trying to clear an obstacle by pulling rather than accepting a lower climb angle
• A go-around flown with nose-up trim and full power (AFH ch. 5)

All of them share low altitude and a distracted pilot — which is why the recovery has to be reflex.

Because the airplane is harder to hold there. At high power and high AOA, three things fight a fixed bank angle:

• The left-turning tendencies increase
• The roll-off tendency at the break accelerates
• Aileron authority is reduced

The AFH practices power-on stalls from climbing turns of 15° to 20° bank (AFH ch. 5), and the ACS allows ±10° around the specified bank rather than the ±5° it demands power-off. Looser is not free — the bank still must not exceed 20°.

No. The wing stalls at the critical AOA regardless of airspeed, weight, load factor, or power (PHAK ch. 5). What power changes is the indicated airspeed at which you arrive at that AOA: thrust supports part of the weight, and the propeller blows accelerated air over the inboard wing, so the power-on stall occurs at a lower indicated airspeed with a much higher deck angle. That is why the power-on entry feels like it will never stall — and then does.

Sharper and louder. Buffeting and shaking are more noticeable with power on, because the propeller slipstream feeds turbulent air over the tail; the power-off, 1G stall by contrast may present mostly as full-up elevator and a high sink rate (AFH ch. 5).

Practice separating the three channels:

• Sight — pitch attitude against the horizon
• Sound — airflow noise and the horn
• Feel — buffet, control mushiness, seat pressure

The examiner will ask which cue came first.

• Heavier — higher stall speed, more induced drag, a more pronounced break
• Aft CG — lighter stick forces, lower stall speed, and degraded recovery characteristics with less resistance to spin entry (AFH ch. 5)
• Flaps extended — lower stall speed but lower design G-limits and a more nose-low recovery attitude; the takeoff configuration is what the Task normally uses
• Clean/cruise — the highest stall speed and the deck angle most likely to approach the 30° pitch ceiling

Yaw at the break. A spin requires at least one wing to exceed the critical AOA while a sideslip or yaw acts on the airplane at or beyond the stall, and a stall in a slipping or skidding turn rotates in the direction of rudder application — regardless of which wingtip is raised (AFH ch. 5). Yaw arrives uninvited from several sources:

• Adverse yaw from aileron
• P-factor
• Torque
• Spiraling slipstream
• Gyroscopic precession

The countermeasure, stated as plainly as the FAA ever states anything: maintain directional control and do not allow the nose to yaw before stall recovery is initiated.

• Secondary — pulling back too abruptly during the recovery and exceeding critical AOA a second time; run the same recovery again (AFH ch. 5)
• Accelerated — pulling too fast on the controls during the entry, which the AFH lists as a common error of intentional stalls; it stalls the airplane above the 1G speed, often with a sharper break. Covered as its own commercial Task under VII.D
• Cross-control — aileron one way, rudder the other; little warning, and the airplane may roll toward inverted, which is usually the beginning of a spin (AFH ch. 5)

The device flags proximity to the critical AOA, but the 1G published stall speed behind it is valid only in:

• Unaccelerated 1G flight
• Coordinated flight
• One weight
• One CG (AFH ch. 5)

A climbing, banked, high-power entry satisfies none of those, so the indicated airspeed at which the warning arrives will not match the book number.

Certification also permits the required warning to come from inherent pre-stall buffet rather than a device (AFH ch. 5) — and with power on, that buffet is the strong cue, fed by slipstream over the tail. An AOA indicator is bounded by calibration, unheated probes, indicator type, flap setting, and wing contamination (AFH ch. 5).

Different things in different places. In the landing flare the horn is expected and appropriate. On climb-out, in a climbing turn, or during a go-around, it means your margin is gone in exactly the regime this Task simulates — usually because the nose was raised to chase an altitude or an obstacle the available power cannot support.

The response, immediately:

1. Reduce AOA until the warning stops.
2. Level the wings with coordinated aileron and rudder.
3. Confirm power.
4. Accept a shallower climb angle rather than pulling for terrain.

A horn on climb-out is the last cue before a departure stall, not a nuisance annunciation.

Clear the area first (CA.VII.C.S1) with clearing turns that check above and below, then accept that from the entry onward the nose blocks the forward view entirely. Practical answers the examiner likes:

• Pick an area away from published practice areas and arrival corridors
• Use ADS-B traffic as a supplement rather than a substitute
• Keep the wings clearing during the climb attitude
• Choose an altitude with margin so the recovery — not the entry — is what determines your floor