Elevator Trim Stall Demonstration (ASEL, ASES)

It shows what can happen when the pilot applies full power for a go-around without maintaining positive control of the airplane (AFH 5-20). It is a demonstration-only maneuver — only flight instructor applicants may be required to perform it on a practical test (AFH 5-20).

The evaluator selects Task F, G, or H from this group per the Area X note.

Any time full power is applied with the airplane trimmed nose-up for a low-speed glide (AFH 5-21):

• A go-around from a normal landing approach.
• A go-around from a simulated forced-landing approach — which is how it bites instructors, not just students.
• Immediately after a takeoff with the trim still set for a normal landing approach glide at idle power.

AC 61-67C par. 104b confirms the accident relevance: many stall/spin accidents occur during takeoff and climbout particularly during go-arounds, with a nose-high trim setting or premature flap retraction as the causal factor.

Two effects stack together the instant the throttle goes forward (AFH 5-21).

Increased propwash over the tail: the horizontal stabilizer and elevator sit in the slipstream, so more power means more dynamic pressure on the tail surfaces — which amplifies whatever the trim tab is already commanding, nose-up.

Elevator trim: the airplane was trimmed for a low-speed glide, so the tab is holding a large nose-up command that the pilot was previously balancing with the airplane's slow speed.

The combined effect is that the nose rises sharply and turns to the left, and with the throttle fully advanced the pitch attitude increases above the normal climbing attitude (AFH 5-21). The left yaw is torque, slipstream, and P-factor at high power and low airspeed (AFH 5-11, 5-22).

1. Clear the area; entry altitude allows completion no lower than 3,000 feet AGL (AI.X.G.S1, S2).
2. Slowly retard the throttle and extend the landing gear if retractable.
3. Extend the flaps to the one-half or full position, close the throttle, and maintain altitude until the airspeed approaches the normal glide speed (AFH 5-21).
4. When the normal glide is established, trim the airplane nose-up for the normal landing approach glide (AI.X.G.S4). This is the step that arms the demonstration — do not skip or under-trim it.
5. During the simulated final approach glide, advance the throttle smoothly to maximum allowable power, just as for a go-around (AI.X.G.S5).

Then hold only light elevator and right rudder pressure and let the airplane show you what it does (AC 61-67C, par. 200g(2)).

1. Acknowledge the cues at the first indication of a stall (AI.X.G.S6).
2. When it is apparent the airplane is approaching a stall, apply sufficient forward elevator pressure to reduce the AOA and eliminate the stall warning before returning to the normal climbing attitude (AFH 5-21).
3. Right rudder to stop the left swerve.
4. Adjust trim to relieve the heavy control pressures (AI.X.G.S8) — then complete the normal go-around procedure and return to the desired flightpath (AFH 5-21).

Recover at the first indication or after a full stall, as the evaluator specifies (AI.X.G.S7). AC 61-67C's version is to allow the nose to pitch up and torque to swerve the airplane left, and at the first indication of a stall, recover to a normal climbing pitch attitude (par. 200g(3)).

Recovery will require a significant nose-down attitude to reduce the AOA below its critical AOA, along with a corresponding significant loss of altitude (AFH 5-21).

That is the sentence to quote in the oral, because it explains why this is normally flown as a first-indication recovery: the demonstration's entire real-world context is a go-around from an approach to landing, where that altitude does not exist. The AFH says so directly: it is imperative to avoid the occurrence of an elevator trim stall during an actual go-around from an approach to landing (AFH 5-21).

The AFH lists the abilities the demonstration develops (AFH 5-21):

• Making smooth power applications.
• Overcoming strong trim forces.
• Maintaining positive control of the airplane to hold safe flight attitudes.
• Using proper and timely trim techniques.
• Avoiding the actions that produce this stall, recognizing when one is approaching, and taking prompt, correct action to prevent a full stall.

AC 61-67C par. 200g(4) compresses it: emphasize the importance of correct attitude control, application of control pressures, and proper trim during go-arounds.

The habit you're building: pitch first, then power, then flaps, then trim — and never let go of the yoke to reach for the trim wheel.

Errors:

• Insufficient nose-up trim on entry — the demonstration doesn't demonstrate anything.
• Anticipating the pitch-up and holding it off with the yoke — you've hidden the phenomenon you're teaching.
• Advancing the throttle abruptly rather than smoothly, which is a different lesson (and harder on the engine).
• Letting the left yaw go uncorrected — that's a skid at high power and low airspeed, i.e. a spin setup (AC 61-67C, par. 109).
• Trimming before flying during the recovery. Fly the attitude with the yoke first, then trim off the pressure (AI.X.G.S8).
• Retracting flaps too early on the go-around — a listed causal factor in go-around stall accidents (AC 61-67C, par. 104b).

Guard rails: 3,000 feet AGL floor (AI.X.G.S2); hands close to the yoke because the pitch-up can outrun a slow student; and take the controls if the nose keeps rising with the yaw uncorrected.

The whole lesson lives in what you say between "throttle forward" and "recovering." Narrate the forces:

1. "Clearing turns. Floor is 3,000 AGL. Gear down, flaps down, power back."
2. "Normal glide speed. Now I'm going to trim it fully for the approach — hands off, it flies the glide by itself. That's where you'd really be on short final."
3. "Runway's blocked. Go-around. Full power, smoothly — and I'm going to hold only light back pressure and light right rudder, the way a startled pilot would."
4. "Watch the nose. I'm not pulling — the airplane is doing that."
5. "And it's swinging left. That's torque and P-factor with the ball ignored."
6. "Horn. Recovering — forward pressure until it's quiet, right rudder, hold the climb attitude, now I trim."

Then the question that does the teaching: "How much did I have to push? And where would we have been if we'd started at 300 feet?"

This maneuver deliberately creates a high-power, low-airspeed, nose-high, uncoordinated condition — precisely the state AC 61-67C names as a classic situation where P-factor could play an important role in a stall/spin accident (par. 109). Treat it as a spin-adjacent maneuver:

• 3,000 feet AGL completion floor (AI.X.G.S2), matching the other demonstration stalls, not the 1,500 feet of Tasks C and D.
• Guard the rudder. Yaw is what converts this into an incipient spin, and the yaw is being generated for you by the engine.
• Know your trim authority. In most training airplanes the pilot can overpower the trim, and the AFH notes improper trim can be corrected when returning to the desired flightpath (AFH 5-16). In an airplane where you cannot, brief the trim-runaway procedure before you fly this.
• Aircraft limitations (AI.X.G.R4) — check the POH for any restriction on full-power application at low airspeed with flaps extended, and respect VFE throughout.
• Recover early the first time. Demonstrate at the first indication before you ever consider taking it further.
• Distraction and task saturation (AI.X.G.R5) — not a side risk here, it is the accident:
  • The real go-around is a saturated moment: a deer on the runway, an airplane that didn't clear, a tower call, a passenger talking — all while the pilot must fly pitch, power, flaps, gear, and trim in the right order.
  • NTSB data show most stall/spin accidents occur when the pilot is momentarily distracted from the primary task of flying (AC 61-67C, par. 3 and 101).
  • Brief that the demonstration reproduces a startle, not a maneuver — a startled pilot's response ranges from hesitancy to act to the impulse to do something even if it's wrong (AIH 2-12).
  • Once the student can fly it clean, add a realistic distraction on the go-around call and debrief which item they dropped — almost always trim or flaps.
  • The teaching point is task prioritization: aviate — pitch attitude — first, every time.

Because the stall is the symptom. The AFH's framing is "without maintaining positive control of the airplane" (AFH 5-20) — the airplane did exactly what it was trimmed to do; the pilot simply stopped being the one deciding the attitude.

Two instructor-level generalizations to draw out:

Trim is a force, not a control: it removes control pressure at one airspeed only. Change the airspeed or the power and the trim setting becomes a persistent unwanted input. The AFH warns in the stall-recovery template that excessive use of pitch trim may aggravate the condition, or may result in loss of control or high structural loads (AFH 5-16).

Configuration changes must be flown, not just made: the same principle produces the secondary stall from rapid flap retraction (Task X.H) and the settling that follows a go-around with flaps still out (AC 61-67C, par. 200f).

The transferable habit: after any large power or configuration change, fly the attitude first and re-trim last.