Stall always occurs at a given angle of attack for a given airfoil. I’m surprised how that’s apparently not covered in some theoretical courses – just like the stalling turns in some practical.
I’ve always done stalling turns, either in basic VFR or IR training / revalidations / exams
@Jacko for practical purposes I always view that for a given weight, power and bank the stall happens at given back stick position (which correponds to cititcal AoA as Noe said or variable speeds as the syllabus does emphasis)
On most certified types you will never stall with stick forward in any power/bank configuration nor with nose bellow horizon in S&L
This could save my life if I fly engine off and/or no clue of bank angle….except when inverted :)
One does not get that much chance to hear the stall warner nor feel buffeting in turn stalls, you simply get wing drop to inside and you go for it…
Coda wrote:
So effectively, stall speed increases not as a factor of bank, but of AoA?
No. As a factor of load factor and mass (=weight), slipstream and configuration.
Jacko wrote:
I’ve no idea why PPL(A) students are taught from day one to keep the nose on the horizon in a turn.
Because that is a turn. It’s about aircraft coordination and precise flying. Pilots are supposed to control their rate of descent or climb even in a turn and not fly any altitude by chance.
Ibra wrote:
@Jacko for practical purposes I always view that for a given weight, power and bank the stall happens at given back stick position
No pilot flies stick positions. Pilots fly loads and stick forces.
mh wrote:
Pilots fly loads and stick forces.
The mortals fly speeds and rpms 
On gliders, I fly trim & stick (=fly loads and stick forces), basically, I know what stick position stalls me at 60 degrees bank and what stick position throw me in a drive at 60 degrees bank and I trim somewhere in between, on most of stuff I fly there is no such “trim spot” beyond 60 degrees bank, if it stalls at 60 degrees with stick fully forward I should not fly it again (you can spot those types from their manuals with the catch phrase Stick Fully/Completely Forward for spin recovery)
Hard to do that in power unless you cut the crap off 
Trimming in a turn? That’s an interesting concept.
Not on powered, but if you fly gliders you will understand
We do train stalls in turns (and quite steeply banked ones) in gliding, because it’s not just the base to final turn you’ve got to consider in gliders – it’s also the “whoops got too low don’t want to land out I’ll take this really weak thermal” turn you need to consider too, where the pilot is deliberately flying very close to stall speed and in a turn to remain in a small thermal.
I also did some (more advanced, not primary) glider training where we did incipient spin recoveries off a winch launch (inadvertent stall/spin off a winch launch is unfortunately common enough it gets a mention in the stats every year). Practising spins at 3000 feet is much different than the incipient spin recovery right after release at about 1000 feet, because you can really see the ground coming up to hit you like a giant custard pie to the face and all you can see out the front is the ground. You can certainly understand the startle effect of that, and how it gets people who’ve never seen it and who forget how to recover before the spin becomes fully developed.
Ibra wrote:
The mortals fly speeds and rpms
Obviously we’re talking about manoeuvring and not about trimmed cruise flights. No pilot really knows the center stick position. You guesstimate it while on ground and then let the stick forces guide you. You “pull more” or “release back pressure” not on the basis of stick position, but on force. That i, why stick forces and their slope are a certification specification.
Think about it. When was the last time you said “stick 10° tilted back” or “yoke 2 inches aft of center” ?
The only time I ever put the stick in a position is in a glider before a winch launch (some gliders like the Ka-8 need the stick full forward, or they rear up on acceleration). All other times, it’s all about control pressures.
alioth wrote:
You can certainly understand the startle effect of that, and how it gets people who’ve never seen it and who forget how to recover before the spin becomes fully developed.
Completely agree, I had a loss of control (not sure what it was stall or wing drop or whatever) at 400ft trying to avoid another glider while flying slowly on a ridge, things happened quickly I can’t remember what I did to recover but for sure it felt insane to push the stick forward when you can’t see blue sky in the outside picture…I got the same feeling again when I was given the controls to do a wing-over at 800ft or wing drops while attached to cables (not everybody has the infrastructure to teach stalls or aerobatics at 3000ft in winter days )
mh wrote:
Think about it. When was the last time you said “stick 10° tilted back” or “yoke 2 inches aft of center” ?
Agree no way to figure that out precisely, especially as force changes with various flaps/power/trim configs, but as “universal truth” you should not be stalled on stick fully forward in common types irrespective of flying surface configs no? (ex-inverted)
