Customer Reviews

Emergency Maneuver Training : Controlling Your Airplane During a Crisis

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Rich Stowell's book Emergency Maneuver Training is WELL worth the $ it costs! Here's why I think so.

First and foremost, it's clear that Stowell is a flight Instructor with a capital 'I.' The easier part of instructing is filling up a student's "knowledge vacuum." That's as straightforward as painting a fresh bare wall, and any teacher who knows his subject can do it. The harder part is drilling and blasting out the student's wrong ideas, substituting correct notions (Power-Push-Roll) for faulty ones (the stick is the "up" constrol). That's no different in flying than it is in mathematics, and much different that simply pouring in facts. More like carefully fishing antique wiring out of old lath-and-plaster walls, gingerly pulling in new empowering cables. Not many instructors have the combination of knowledge, confidence, and commitment to tackle that second job. Rich Stowell does.

When we finish our early training for the Private Pilots certificate, many of us take at least a few hours of instrument flying instruction. We do that as insurance against some day stumbling around a corner and finding ourselves in a cloud. Stowell makes a persuasive case that we should also make a planned foray into emergency maneuver training. While we don't like to think that we may someday find ourselves in an inadvertent spin, or inverted near the ground due to wake turbulence, or with a jammed rudder -- we might! And that's no time to improvise. We need to know what we're doing.

I was raised in Alamogordo, New Mexico, during the second World War, near a bomber pilot training base. My dad was the town doctor and knew some of the pilot trainees. I remember his telling me about one of those new pilots getting drunk and telling him, "Doc, I know how to fly that B-17 when everything's working well and going swell, but when things start going wrong I don't have a clue ..." It's that sort of knowledge/performance gap, on the single-engine or twin-engine level, a copy of Rich Stowell's book will fill. Granted you'll need some expert dual instruction for portions of the full program, but this book (it contains a detailed syllabus of the three EMT modules) is the place to start. It will get you mentally prepared and pay for itself by saving time in your subsequent flight instruction.

The book starts out with a detailed but non-mathematical introduction to how an airplane works. You can't go anywhere without THAT knowledge. Stowell's presentation is unusual in going far beyond the regime of steady flight and moderately banked turns. He'll show you how to roll your airplane -- and how NOT to -- the whole enchilada. He says (page 3), "... normal flight experience ... represents a limited snapshot of a much larger, more dynamic picture." Amen.

Next comes an analysis of stalls and how to deal with those, then spins (inverted as well as upright!) and how to get out of them. Stowell has an unusual ability to force us to keep the big picture in clear focus, to implement basic concepts, and to keep a few key ideas firmly towards the fronts of our minds. His exposition is masterful, clear and correct. The subtitle of his book is: Controlling Your Airplane During a Crisis. He obviously understands flying and the various emergency control issues. Those are his subject and he sticks with them. He tells you both why and how to do the right thing as well as why you shouldn't perform "obvious" but incorrect actions. Stowell directly stresses and repeats to emphasize major points; he knows these survival issues are too serious a subject to be satsified with only vague prescriptions.

Overbanking emergencies are treated next, then control failures, and last engine out/off-airport landings finish up this 228-page large-format softbound book. There are many memorable details, and high impact exhortations such as: Rehearse! He is not afraid (not politically correct!) to delve into what might be going on in your mind during an emergency and how you can substitute proper thoughts and attitudes for dead ends. Stowell has been there, done that, and will convince you that you can too! New pilots who plan on surviving to be "old" pilots should buy Emergency Maneuver Training. Wouldn't hurt some of those "old" pilots to have it too.

This book is a mental Leatherman tool for aviators. His ideas and techniques are sturdy and flexible; you only have to use ONE of them ONCE to make it all worth while. I highly recommend Rich Stowell's book Emergency Maneuver Training.

John T. Lowry

Emergency Maneuver Training falls between basic flying and full-bore aerobatics. The idea is simple: if something goes wrong, you will know enough to get out of it.

Stowell does a great job of walking you through how an airplane flies. What was especially useful was the description of how one would design an airplane from the ground up. Where he excels, however, is presenting it in a clear fashion without boring the reader.

The book includes descriptions on recovering from inversions (perhaps you got caught in wake turbulence) to control systems failures (split ailerons; stuck elevator). I would also encourage the video, which complements the material well.

I first read of Rich Stowell in AOPA's Flight Training August 2001 issue, ordered the book, then found his friend's [...] flight school, where I spent an intense five weeks of dual instruction toward my private certificate (winter 2004). As Wolfgang Langewiesche points out in his classic, "Stick and Rudder", airplanes depend more on airflow in whatever direction, and forget about the ground. Rich (and Tim) point this out in discussion of control inputs and outputs, which don't necessarily mesh with the book answers in ground school. Use the latter for the written test, and what is real for the flying. I flew about 26 spin recoveries, 180 landings, and who knows how many stalls and other maneuvers, to the point where I could fly a slip straight ahead, slowly feed in rudder and feel the airplane depart toward a spin, and bring it back from that edge. My Aeronca Champ feels like a completely different airplane after all that Super Decathlon training. Buy the book, but fly the training, too.

This IS a great book. I got the most out of it AFTER taking Module I with it's author. Several weeks later I took Module II and got even more out of the book! Every pilot should get this kind of training. I find myself using this book as a reference quite often. Get the book, take the training, you'll be glad you did.

A must for all Pilots.



Capt. B. Koschak
Rowlett Texas

There's a lot more to flying aeroplanes safely than what is typically taught in 'standard' flight schools. Reading this book, coupled with a suitable EMT course should be mandatory for all pilots to make their flying safer and more enjoyable. I highly recommend this book.