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Many of us who were certificated in those days can remember having gritted teeth and a white-knuckled grip while the stall horn blared incessantly .
With the release of the first private pilot — airplane ACS in June 2016 , the FAA revised the slow flight evaluation standard to reflect maneuvering without a stall warning ( e . g ., aircraft buffet , stall horn , etc .). The agency explained this change in Safety Alert for Operators ( SAFO ) 16010 as one approach to addressing LOC-I accidents in general aviation , noting that the previous inclusion of a maneuver that required intentional disregard of the stall warning activated is neither desirable nor intended . Rather , the point of the slow flight task is to assess the applicant ’ s ability to operate safely at the low airspeeds and at high angles of attack used during the takeoff / departure and approach / landing phases of normal flight . As revised , the slow flight task verifies that the applicant has learned airplane cues in that flight condition , how to smoothly manage coordinated flight control inputs , and the progressive signals that a stall may be imminent if there is further deviation from this condition .
Loss of control in flight ( LOC-I ) persists as the leading cause of fatal GA accidents in the United States and commercial aviation worldwide .
Not everyone was on board . One of the primary concerns was that removing the requirement to test an applicant at what pilots like me learned as “ minimum controllable airspeed ,” or MCA , meant that instructors would not bother to ensure that pilots are still trained and proficient at maneuvering near the critical angle of attack ( AOA ) — or , just as important , understand what happens beyond the stall warning .
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