Dramatic Aircraft Stall with Successful Forced Landing, May 2008

The ultralight aircraft stalled unexpectedly during a climb after which the pilot was able to make a forced landing at his home strip in country Victoria.

Sensitive Altimeter = 1000ft/100ft gradations
Airspeed = mph

Climbing at around 50mph and passing through 1300ft the aircraft suddenly stalled and pitched to vertical then recovered quickly as speed increased. Maximum indicated speed during the dive was about 85mph and the aircraft leveled after losing about 300ft altitude. The pilot was able to dead-stick the powerless aircraft to his home strip from 1000ft whilst approaching at 60-65mph. (Those trees at the threshold are 80ft pines).

We're still puzzled by this because stalling speed for this aircraft is under 40mph (tested) however the airspeed indicator doesn't show less than 50mph at any time.

A sudden gust or downdraught might account for it as the airspeed indicator might not have had time to respond to the drop in pitot pressure before the aircraft began accelerating in the dive.

Also, spectators saw a couple of eagles flying ahead of the aircraft just prior to stalling, so maybe the eagles were riding an updraught in which case there could also be a nearby downdraught.

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