Accelerated Stall

A wing stalls at a critical angle of attack, not at a particular airspeed, so any manoeuvre that increases load factor raises the airspeed at which that angle is reached. In a level turn at 45 degrees of bank the load factor is about 1.41G and the stall speed rises by roughly 19 percent; at 60 degrees it is 2G and the stall speed rises by about 41 percent. That is the whole of the accelerated stall: the same aerodynamic event as a straight-ahead stall, arriving sooner and usually with less warning.

FAA-S-ACS-7 requires the applicant to select an entry altitude that allows the Task to be completed no lower than 3,000 feet AGL — higher than the 1,500 feet used for power-off stalls in a single — to set power such that the airspeed does not exceed maneuvering speed or any other POH/AFM limitation, and to establish and maintain a coordinated turn at 45 degrees of bank while increasing elevator back pressure smoothly and firmly until an impending stall is reached. The applicant acknowledges the cues at the first indication, recovers in accordance with the POH, configures as the manufacturer recommends, accelerates to best angle or best rate of climb speed, and returns to the altitude, heading and airspeed specified by the evaluator.

The maneuvering-speed limit is the safety boundary that makes the demonstration acceptable: at or below that speed the wing will stall before the airframe reaches its structural load limit.

The accelerated stall matters far beyond the checkride because it is the stall that actually kills people. The classic base-to-final overshoot is an accelerated stall: a pilot steepens the turn, loads the wing, and reaches the critical angle of attack at an airspeed that looked comfortably safe on the indicator. Teaching it at altitude is how a school makes that connection before a student meets it in the pattern.

For instructors it is also a standardisation item. Because the entry involves deliberately loading the airplane, the briefing has to be explicit about the maneuvering-speed limit, the altitude floor, and what an acceptable recovery looks like, so that the demonstration is consistent across a fleet and across instructors.

Aviatize lets a school hold stall training as separate graded objectives — power-off, power-on and accelerated — rather than one stall entry, so a training record shows which type a student has actually demonstrated and to what standard. Where a school attaches its own altitude floors and briefing notes to the objective, every instructor sees the same standard at the point of grading.