CAN YOU STALL A HARVARD WITHOUT THE ELEVATOR?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:14]The Harvard does not lie to you.

[00:00:19]>> [music] >> That's the thing about old airplanes.

[00:00:22]They have no interest in protecting your feelings.

[00:00:26]No input protection.

[00:00:29]No limiter quietly stepping in to save you from yourself. What you do with the controls is what the airplane does immediately.

[00:00:38]Honestly.

[00:00:39]And sometimes violently.

[00:00:41]Which makes it the perfect airplane >> [screaming] >> to test a theory. Because of the the nature of this beautiful airplane and its amazing ability to be exactly as special as it is, we're going to see whether we can stall it without using the elevator. We can try.

[00:00:58]We can try. Okay. Well, with neutral elevator, throttle closed, let's see if air speed will do it.

[00:01:08]Obviously, it's entering a dive descent.

[00:01:11]That's never going to stall. So, that could work. Let's try and apply the power now back to level again.

[00:01:19]I wonder if uh crossing the controls could cause a stall. Let's try that without using the elevator. Left aileron, right rudder. That's quite a deep sweep.

[00:01:31]And as you can see, aileron will stall there.

[00:01:36]The next thing that people ask for on video is bank, aren't they, Johnno? Bank will do it for sure.

[00:01:43]>> [laughter] >> You know what I think? You're wrong.

[00:01:46]I think I might be too. I think you might be wrong too. Let's turn around.

[00:01:50]And of course, the ultimate steep turn, the most steep turn I can ever manage, is a 360° steep turn, isn't it, Johnno? It is.

[00:02:01]Now, let's do the steepest turn we can and see if we can cause a stall through bank alone.

[00:02:08]I'll just come back around this way.

[00:02:09]There's traffic under us.

[00:02:11]We'll just move away from him.

[00:02:13]Okay, we're going to come >> [screaming] >> up.

[00:02:16]Let me take me to a ball spin up.

[00:02:19]And here's our very steep turn.

[00:02:22]And that's a really steep turn, isn't it?

[00:02:25]That's quite steep.

[00:02:27]That was an aileron of course.

[00:02:30]360° of bank, no stall. Nope.

[00:02:35]Now, the other things that people talk about are putting the attitude up high. Yeah? Yep.

[00:02:41]Well, let's have a look around here.

[00:02:44]Make sure we're all clear above, below, and around.

[00:02:48]Let's use a high attitude and then neutralize the elevator and see whether that will cause a stall.

[00:02:56]Okay, I'm going to use a very high attitude and neutralize the elevator.

[00:03:04]I just stalled by itself.

[00:03:06]It simply recovers.

[00:03:08]The center of gravity being in front of the center of pressure gives us that longitudinal stability and of course there's no stall there. So, attitude can't do it either. Nope.

[00:03:18]What about if we try a wingover again and see if we can stall because of the high attitude, a low air speed, and a high bank angle.

[00:03:30]First of all, let's get some speed.

[00:03:35]Please have a ball sitting. I'm going to come quite steeply up.

[00:03:40]There you go. A very high attitude.

[00:03:43]I'm going to apply a very high bank angle.

[00:03:45]And look at the air speed. It's off the clock completely. I know where the stall speed position is. And as you can quite plainly see, no buffet, no stall, no nothing. So, it's really all As usual, it's all about the elevator. I can't stall without using the elevator. The stalling angle of attack is a constant.

[00:04:07]The elevator controls the angle of attack. And therefore, there must be some constant elevator angle that corresponds with the critical angle of attack, which it ultimately controls. We all learned back in PPL days that the stalling angle of attack doesn't change. Other things do, but the angle of attack doesn't.

[00:04:26]It's the concept of stall speed position. The only way I can cause this airfoil, this airplane to stall, is by moving the column too.

[00:04:35]Here.

[00:04:36]I'm stalled.

[00:04:38]Stall.

[00:04:39]I'm stalled. Regardless of attitude, pitch attitude, or bank >> [music] [music]