Aviaze Lessons Learned - Loss of Control on Backside of the Power Curve

John FRANKLIN
John FRANKLIN • 20 August 2020
in community General Aviation
4 comments
5 likes

With huge thanks again to Aviaze, here is the latest lessons learned video to help you learn about loss of control on the back side of the power curve. 

 

Following a touch and go on RWY07, a C172 struggles to gain altitude, the pilot is forced to turn left to avoid obstacles but, suddenly, he loses control. Watch this episode and improve your airmanship regarding the power/drag curve.  

The main lessons learned are: 

  • Always calculate the takeoff performance, especially where obstacle clearance is a concern.  
  • Be aware, you go through that back side area in every take off  

There are of course other lessons you can take from this, what did you learn from this?

Comments (4)

Harry Karlsson
Harry Karlsson

We recently lost a C206, probably the reason for the accident was early rotation due to out-of-t/o-trimming, which after the acft was airborne on the wrong side of the power/drag curve.
With a few hundred hours of experience with second gen jet fighters this was one of the first rules You learned during conversion training.

Michel Masson
Michel Masson

If properly masterd, the Backside of the Power Curve can be used to fly slower (when needed):

Raise the nose and ADD throttle: - the REVERSE of normal command - while maintaining altitude. More power is needed because of more drag.

BEWARE however of non exceeding the critical (high) Angle of Attack corresponding to stall! Should that happen, push the nose gently to recover and regain lift.

See for instance this demo clip on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk-WJofcS7w

Hans Bogaerts
Hans Bogaerts

Thanks for sharing these suggestions to improve airmanship. We all recognize the dangers, and still occasionally people get trapped in the part of the flight envelope where they run out of power while nearing the stall / spin.

Especially during the past few days with high density altitudes due to heath, careful performance calculations were essential. I fly a Robin DR401 or Diamond DA40TDi from a 600 m runway close to sea level, but both needed a reduced take-off mass to be within limits in zero wind.


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