Definition
The recognizable warning signs that an aircraft's horizontal tail surface (tailplane) has stalled due to ice contamination, typically including elevator buffet or vibration felt through the control column, sudden uncommanded nose-down pitching, lightening or reversal of elevator control forces, and difficulty trimming. These symptoms most often appear when flaps are extended, power is changed, or airspeed shifts during approach in icing conditions.
Plain English
The clues that tell you the small wing at the back of the airplane has stopped flying because of ice. Things like the control yoke shaking, the nose suddenly dropping, the controls feeling strange, or the airplane wanting to pitch down on its own — especially after you put the flaps down in icy weather.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument flying, icing, approach, and flap-extension discussions, especially when learning how to recognize an iced tailplane before it becomes uncontrollable.
Derivation
“Tailplane” means the small wing-like surface at the tail of an airplane. “Stall” originally carries the idea of stopping or coming to a standstill; in aviation, it means the air is no longer flowing smoothly over a lifting surface. That helps here because the tailplane can stall just like a wing can, but the airplane’s reaction is different.
Why Pilots Care
Early recognition lets the pilot apply the correct recovery procedure before the airplane departs controlled flight.
Analogy
Think of the tailplane as the airplane’s balancing hand. If that hand suddenly slips, the nose can drop before the pilot expects it.
Grounding Statement
In an iced approach, lowering flaps can change the airflow enough that the tailplane suddenly loses smooth airflow and the nose pitches down.
Intuition Check
Do not assume “stall” means the engine quit. Here, “stall” means a wing-like surface has lost smooth airflow, and in this term the surface is the tailplane, not the main wing.
Example Sentence 1
After extending the flaps on approach, the crew noticed tailplane stall symptoms — control buffet and a sudden nose-down pitch — and immediately retracted the flaps to recover.
Example Sentence 2
After activating the boots, the crew watched for any remaining tailplane stall symptoms before continuing the descent.