Sie sind auf Seite 1von 12

What is a stall?

The dreaded stall... To hear people talk about it, you'd think
it was some sort of mythical beast that flies around, pulling
aircraft out of the sky with one swipe of its mighty paw. As
you might have already surmised from my slightly sarcastic
tone, this simply isn't the case. :-)
n reality, a stall is nothing more than the ultralight trying to
do !the right thing!. "#ot some politician's ethical views
about what is right$ your ultralight follows the laws of
physics.) $-) A stall is nothing to be afraid of$ it is a
perfectly natural occurance, and there is nothing !wrong!
with an ultralight when it stalls.
%irst of all, a stall has nothing whatsoever to do with the
engine. &hen an ultralight is said to have !stalled!, it is the
wing which has stalled, not the engine' To understand why
an ultralight stalls, we first have to understand how it flies.
&ithout getting into a whole bunch of gobbelty-gook about
the theory and physics of flight, the basic reason why an
ultralight flies is because of the shape of its wing. "&hich a
whole bunch of people (ust love to argue about. As strange
as it may seem, it doesn't appear as if we really fully know
for sure why an airfoil flies, even after all of these years of
flight.) Air molecules rushing over the curved, smooth
surface on the top of the wing create an area of low
pressure above the wing. "As compared to the relative high
pressure under the wing.) This is because air which speeds
up will create an area of low pressure. The shape of the top
of the wing causes the molecules to speed up. "A similar
thing happens in a carburetor$ the air that is being forced
into it is sped up, which creates a low pressure area, which
sucks fuel into the air stream.) )ecause of this, the aircraft
is more or less !sucked! upwards. There are those who say
that the air is actually being pushed downward "by the
bottom of the wing), or a combination of a multitude of
factors, but whatever the actual reason the wing flies, the
smooth flow of air over the top surface of the wing is an
essential part of flight. This is also the reason why frost or
icing will cause an ultralight to stop flying. The air can't
flow smoothly over the top of the wing "the ice or frost is
rough), so the low pressure system doesn't develop to the
e*tent that it needs to, and the wing can't generate enough
lift to overcome the weight of the aircraft. The reason the
ultralight flies of course, is because it happens to be
attached to the rising wing. (Note: If you think you've got a
better or more accurate explanation of why a wing flies, I'd
be interested in hearing it.
+k, now that we know we need a smooth airflow over the
wing, what is a stall, )asically, it is an interruption of that
smooth airflow. As you increase the angle of attack-, the air
has to travel over a larger and larger !hill! before running
down the top of the wing, and the high pressure air under
the wing can more easily move around the back of the wing
toward the low pressure air on top of the wing, thus
weakening that low pressure area. The air on top of the
wing begins to roll and burble. .ventually, the low pressure
system is completely destroyed, and there is no longer
anything holding the wing up at that e*aggerated angle.
The wing drops, and as it does, it picks up speed, and the
relative wind flows smoothly over the top of the wing
again. As it does, the high pressure area increases, and the
ultralight is flying once more.
)elow is a depiction of a dynamic stall "a stall caused by a
rapid maneuver). /owever, the basic principles should
remain the same for most any stall, should think. n panel
0, the wing is in level flight, and the airflow is smooth, and
attached to the wing. As a result of the viscosity of the air,
the individual fluid particles spin. The red color indicates
particles that are spinning clockwise$ the blue color
indicates particles that are spinning counter-clockwise. As
the angle of attack increases in panels 1 through 2, the
airflow at the trailing edge begins to seperate from the
wing. 3ift is increasing. 4anel 5 shows the clockwise
spinning particles interacting with the counter-clockwise
spinning particles at the trailing edge. 4anel 6 shows a
small blue bubble appearing on the upper surface of the
wing "near the leading edge). n panel 7, the interaction of
the counter-spinning particles has formed a vorte*, which
grows rapidly in panels 8 through 01, until it is driven away
from the upper surface by the blue counter-rotating
particles, and a stall occurs.
As the ultralight approaches a stall, it will usually give you
some warning signs. .verything may get very 9uiet, and
you may hear a sound similar to mice running through your
wings as the air burbles over the surface, and your wing
will probably be at a high angle in relation to the hori:on.
";sually... <eep in mind that it is the angle of attack which
is important, not the angle of the wing with the hori:on, but
in straight and level flight, the hori:on and the relative
wind are generally parallel. =ou can actually stall your
wing in any attitude, at any speed.)
The proper recovery for a stall is to let the stick forward
and add full power. f you do not let the stick forward, you
may stall the ultralight all the way to the ground. "f you
can keep it from spinning-.) f you are approaching a stall
near the ground, it can be difficult to let that stick forward,
but it is nescessary to prevent the stall. f you have enough
altitude, stalls are prefectly harmless, and even a lot of fun'
4racticing stalls at altitude will alert you to the warning
signs as your ultralight tells you it is about to stall, and it
also gives you an opportunity to perfect your recovery
techni9ues. =ou'll want to practice trying to lose as little
altitude as possible, something that becomes increasingly
important for stalls that occur near the ground. f you don't
have any stall e*perience, it would be a very good idea to
spend some money and a little time with an A%, )%, or
>% and have them !show you the ropes! before going off
and trying it on your own. "f you aren't careful, a stall can
develop into a spin-.)
- - .*planation of terms:
Angle of attack:
s the angle created by the chord- of the wing and the
relative wind-.
>hord:
s the immaginary line that would be created if you
drew a line from the leading edge of the wing to the
trailing edge.
?elative wind:
s the wind created by the onrushing air. %or e*ample,
if you were riding a bicycle at 0@mph on a calm day,
the relative wind would be coming straight at you at
0@mph. ?ide directly against a 0@mph wind at 0@mph,
and the relative wind would be coming straight at you
at 1@mph. ?ide with a 0@mph wind at 0@mph, and
there is no relative wind.
Apin:
A spin occurs when you are fully stalled, but one wing
is more stalled than the other, so that wing drops faster
than the !less stalled ! one. The nose points almost
straight down, and the ground rapidly rotates around
you in a most disconcerting manner as your ultralight
rushes toward it, similar to a spiral dive. "To determine
wether you are in a spin or a spiral dive, look at your
airspeed indicator. n a spin, you will be stalled, and
hence, not gaining speed. n a spiral dive, you will be
rapidly gaining speed.)
Aome people do spins for pure en(oyment, but don't
mess with them unless you know the proper recovery
techni9ue and your aircraft is rated for spins. Apins are
generally not recommended in ultralights. A well-
behaved aircraft will bring itself out of a spin if you
(ust release the controls, but there are some that will
not. =ou cannot spin an aircraft without stalling it first.
f you want to do spins, find a >% to work with you.
Bo not try to spin unless you have a full understanding
of what is going on, and you know the proper recovery
techni9ue'' =our first few spins should be done under
the direction and guidance of a >%.
The history of this article:
found some great pictures of a stall which were created by
researchers at the ;niversity of >incinnati, which thought
would look neat as an animated .gif. scanned 'em in, and
struggled with them for a long time before was
moderately happy with the results. "They could be better,
but at least they're not horrible.) $-) decided to write an
informative article about stalls around 'em, and this is the
result. 'm no e*pert, and this is my first attempt at such an
article, so if you find anything missing, misleading, or (ust
pain wrong, please let me know and 'll correct it AAA4.
--Con
Dany thanks to &alter Erooms ">%), for correcting my
spin e*planation. Dany thanks to Dark .. >arruth ">%),
for correcting my stall recovery techni9ue.
)ack to the ;ltralight home page
!on N. "teiger # stei$%$&'cs.fredonia.edu # "(N) *ollege
at +redonia
Symptoms of an approaching stall
+ne symptom of an approaching stall is slow and sloppy
controls. As the speed of the aeroplane decreases
approaching the stall, there is less air moving over the wing
and therefore less will be deflected by the control surfaces
"ailerons, elevator and rudder ) at this slower speed. Aome
buffeting may also be felt from the turbulent flow above the
wings as the stall is reached. /owever during a turn this
buffeting will not be felt and immediate action must be
taken to recover from the stall. The stall warning will
sound, if fitted, in most aircraft 2 to 0@ knots above the stall
speed.
[edit] Stalling characteristics
Bifferent aircraft types have different stalling
characteristics. A benign stall is one where the nose drops
gently and the wings remain level throughout. Alightly
more demanding is a stall where one wing stalls slightly
before the other, causing that wing to drop sharply, with the
possibility of entering a spin. A dangerous stall is one
where the nose rises, pushing the wing deeper into the
stalled state and potentially leading to an unrecoverable
deep stall. This can occur in some T-tailed aircraft where
the turbulent airflow from the stalled wing can blanket the
control surfaces at the tail.
[edit] Stall speed
Airspeed ndicator
Atalls depend more on angle of attack rather than airspeed.
/owever, since, for every weight of every aircraft, there is
an airspeed at which the wing's angle of attack will e*ceed
the critical angle of attack, airspeed in a given
configuration is often used as an indirect indicator of
approaching stall conditions.
There are multiple F speeds which are used to indicate
when a stall will occur:
F
A
: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight
speed at which the airplane is controllable. ;sually
synonymous with F
A0
.
F
A@
: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight
speed in the landing configuration "full flaps, gear
down, spoilers retracted).
F
A0
: the stalling speed or the minimum steady flight
speed obtained in a specific configuration "usually a
!clean! configuration of flaps, landing gear and other
sources of drag).
F
A?
: reference stall speed.
F
A?@
: reference stall speed in the landing
configuration.
F
A?0
: reference stall speed in a specific configuration.
F
A&
: speed at which onset of natural or artificial stall
warning occurs.
+n an airspeed indicator, F
A@
is indicated by the bottom of
the white arc, while F
A
is indicated by the bottom of the
green arc.
[edit] Deep stall
llustration of a deep stall
A deep stall "also called a superstall) is a dangerous type of
stall that affects certain aircraft designs, notably those with
a T-tail configuration. n these designs, the turbulent wake
of a stalled main wing !blanks! the hori:ontal stabili:er,
rendering the elevators ineffective and preventing the
aircraft from recovering from the stall.
Although effects similar to deep stall had long been known
to occur on many aircraft designs, the name first came into
widespread use after a deep stall caused the prototype )A>
0-00 to crash, killing its crew. This led to changes to the
aircraft, including the installation of a stick shaker "see
below) in order to clearly warn the pilot of the problem
before it occurred. Atick shakers are now a part of all
commercial airliners. #evertheless, the problem continues
to periodically haunt new designs$ in the 087@s a prototype
of the latest model of the >anadair >hallenger business (et
entered deep stall during testing, killing one of the test
pilots who was unable to (ump from the plane in time. Also,
paragliders are sometimes known to enter a deep stall
condition.
Beep stall is possible with some sailplanes, as their most
common designs are T-tail configurations. The A-18 glider
is one of the gliders that are vulnerable to deep stalls when
the >E and the overall weight are between certain limits.
n the early 087@s, a Achwei:er AEA 0-G5 sailplane was
modified for #AAA's controlled deep-stall flight program.
H0I
[edit] Stall warning and safety devices
Aeroplanes can be e9uipped with a variety of devices to
prevent or postpone a stall or to make it less "or in some
cases more) severe, or to make recovery easier.
An aerodynamic twist can be introduced to the wing
with the leading edge near the wing tip twisted
downward. This is called washout and causes the
wing root to stall before the wing tip. This makes the
stall gentle and progressive. Aince the stall is delayed
at the wing tips, where the ailerons are, roll control is
maintained when the stall begins.
A stall strip is a small sharp-edged device which,
when attached to the leading edge of a wing,
encourages the stall to start there in preference to any
other location on the wing. f attached close to the
wing root it makes the stall gentle and progressive$ if
attached near the wing tip it encourages the aircraft to
drop a wing when stalling.
Vortex generators, tiny strips of metal or plastic
placed on top of the wing near the leading edge that
protrude past the boundary layer into the free stream.
As the name implies they energi:e the boundary layer
by mi*ing free stream airflow with boundary layer
flow thereby creating vortices, this increases the
inertia of the boundary layer. )y increasing the inertia
of the boundary layer airflow separation and the
resulting stall may be delayed.
An antistall stra!e is a wing e*tension at the root
leading edge which generates a vorte* on the wing
upper surface to postpone the stall.
A stic! pusher is a mechanical device which prevents
the pilot from stalling an aeroplane by pushing the
controls forwards as the stall is approached.
A stic! sha!er is a mechanical device which !shakes
the pilot's controls! to warn of the onset of stall.
A stall warning is an electronic or mechanical device
which sounds an audible warning as the stall speed is
approached. The ma(ority of aircraft contain some
form of this device that warns the pilot of an
impending stall. The simplest such device is a 'stall
warning horn', which consists of either a pressure
sensor or a movable metal tab that actuates a switch,
and produces an audible warning in response.
An angle of attac! limiter or an !alpha! limiter is a
flight computer that automatically prevents pilot input
from causing the plane to rise over the stall angle.
Aome alpha limiters can be disabled by the pilot.
f a forward canard is used for pitch control, rather than an
aft tail, the canard is designed to meet the airflow at a
slightly greater angle of attack than the wing. Therefore,
when the aircraft pitch increases abnormally, the canard
will usually stall first, causing the nose to drop and so
preventing the wing from reaching its critical A+A. Thus
the wing virtually never stalls.
f an aft tail is used, the wing is designed to stall before the
tail. n this case, the wing can be flown at higher lift
coefficient "closer to stall) to produce more overall lift.
Dany aircraft have an angle of attack indicator among the
pilot's instruments which lets the pilot know precisely how
close to the stall point the aircraft is.
[edit] Spoilers
n most circumstances, a stall is an undesirable event.
Apoilers, however, are devices that are intentionally
deployed to create a carefully controlled stall over part of
an aircraft's wing, in order to reduce the lift it generates,
and allow it to descend without gaining speed. Apoilers are
also deployed asymmetrically "i.e. on one wing only) to
enhance roll control. Apoilers can also used on aborted
take-offs and after main wheel contact on landing to
increase the aircraft's weight on its wheels for better
braking action.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen