Plain English Meaning

How a particular airplane behaves when it is about to stall, when it actually stalls, and when the pilot recovers it. Each airplane has its own personality in a stall — some give plenty of warning and drop the nose gently, others give little warning and drop a wing sharply.

Full Definition

The specific behaviors an airplane exhibits as it approaches, enters, and recovers from an aerodynamic stall. These behaviors include the type and timing of stall warnings (buffet, control feel, horn, light), the manner in which the airplane departs from controlled flight (nose drop, wing drop, pitch attitude at the break), the controllability of the airplane through the stall, and the response to inputs. Stall characteristics vary by airplane design, , , (, , ), and .