Emergency Maneuver Training : Controlling Your Airplane During a Crisis (Paperback)

by Rich Stowell (Author) "This profound thought was conveyed in a letter to the pioneering glider designer, Octave Chanute, years before the Wright Brothers' historic first powered flight..." (more)
Key Phrases: emergency maneuver training, elevator control aft, glide envelope, Deep Stall, Induced Drag, Negative Lift (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Emergency Maneuver Training will go a long way in increasing any pilot's knowledge.... Many of the recoveries are easy to remember, thanks to catchy mnemonics that give the correct sequence of control inputs.... At $29.95, it would be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of all pilots interested in learning how to control their airplanes during crises." -- S.M. Spangler, Editor, Flight Training magazine, April 1996, p. 68

"I certainly hope many pilots of today take advantage of this fine publication." -- Paul Poberezny, Founder & Chairman of the Board, Experimental Aircraft Association

"In recent years, the airlines have begun to realize the critical importance of preparing their pilots for the need to employ emergency maneuvering in the case of attitude upsets. Rich Stowell, who has been in the forefront of such training for years, has just written a book that provides similar advice for general aviation pilots. Emergency Maneuver Training is destined to contribute significantly to general aviation safety, and I recommend it to all who want to keep their airplanes out of the scrap yard." -- Barry Schiff, author, video host, retired captain of a major U.S. airline

"Rich Stowell has the unique ability to dissect complex topics in a way that all pilots can understand. His message is safety and his approach makes sense." -- Rod Machado, aviation speaker, educator & author

"The writing in this book is clear, concise, and helped by good graphic illustrations throughout.... Should you buy this book? Not just yes, but Heck YES." -- Thomas White, Sport Aerobatics magazine, May 1996, p. 29

"This book is a goldmine of information for the serious pilot. No flight instructor or flight school should be without it. It will, I feel sure, be an all time classic; like Langewiesche's Stick and Rudder. If you are serious about aviation then you must own this book." -- John Lowery, safety consultant, author, retired Air Force & corporate pilot

"This book too long has been needed in the aviation industry....[Stowell] goes into more depth than most private pilot texts, but still presents the material in a concise and comprehensible manner." -- Vicki Cruse-Campbell, Publisher, US Aviator magazine, September 1996, p. 61

"[I] found the concepts and text to be clearly presented." -- Bruce Landsberg, Executive Director, AOPA Air Safety Foundation

"[Stowell] has given us a greatly detailed approach to the topic.... more than worthwhile in order to learn some vital information." -- David Cooke, AOPA-Australia magazine, March 1996

Product Description
Award-winning flight instructor and aviation video host Rich Stowell has condensed eight years and 2,000+ hours of experience teaching recoveries from spins and other unusual attitudes into a 240-page manual sprinkled with 128 illustrations.

Touted as the "definitive work on an important subject," the book provides a common sense treatment of many subjects inadequately addressed during the course of normal flight training. Several topics critical to safety are covered in detail: basic aerodynamics, turn dynamics, stall/spin dynamics, roll dynamics, glide performance, and off-airport landing scenarios.

Stowell unravels such perennial aviation mysteries as the intricate relationship between pitch and power, the significance of the V-g Diagram, the real cause of spins, the behavior of wingtip vortices, and the human factors influencing aeronautical decision-making. In the process, the reader learns simplified emergency strategies to cope with a host of in-flight maladies, including: spins and spirals, inverted attitudes, wake turbulence, control failures, and engine failures.

The timely information in this book is applicable to pilots at all levels of experience.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Rich Stowell Consulting; 1st edition (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879425920
• ISBN-13: 978-1879425927
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #821,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to control your airplane during a crisis!, January 8, 2000

By	John T. Lowry (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crisp overview of how the plane works (and doesn't), July 7, 2000

By	Jim Carson "http://www.jimcarson.com" (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We fly the way we train..., August 30, 2005

By	C. Branch (Cordova, AK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.