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Re:I was there when the DC-8 went supersonic by doctor_eval on Sunday August 22, 2021 @09:37AM (#28265352)
Well, you’re trained to push the nose down in a stall because stalls normally happen at a very high AoA, when there is not enough airflow over the wings, typically when you’re pointing up, not when you’re in a dive, and certainly not when you’re in a Mach 1.01 dive. And this was an elevator stall.

You’re not taught to pitch down when there is no elevator authority - in fact you wouldn’t be able to, by definition. But the problem here was too much airflow over the horizontal stabiliser - from what I can see, it hadn’t really stalled. Pitching down relieved the load and let them move the stabiliser. I suppose the combined deflection of the stabiliser and then the elevators was enough to get it under control again.

I for one am always pretty impressed with stories like these because they show just how well the pilots understand their aircraft.

Re:I was there when the DC-8 went supersonic by mastazi on Sunday August 22, 2021 @06:38PM (#28270396)
> But the problem here was too much airflow over the horizontal stabiliser

Yes, after thinking about it, maybe they shouldn't have used the word "stall" because in this case it's a bit ambiguous