I keep scraping the leading edge of my bumper

My comment was directed at HTMLspinnr, who is an active pilot. Vne is Velocity Never Exceed, which is one of the standard 'V' speeds defined for aircraft. The major ones, like Vne, are clearly marked on the airspeed indicator. As an example, here is an airspeed indicator from a C-150:



I am surprised you don't know these. They are a standard part of pilot training. You might need to brush up before your next BFR.

Tom

 

... you might as well take off all the ground effects before driving it on the Alcan cause there won't be anything left by the time your done.

 

Takeoff and departure stalls. Oh yes. I recall scaring the living daylights out of myself practicing those. First, there is nothing natural about stalls. Everything feels wrong, and the aircraft is just not happy about it. Throw in full power and a climbing turn, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Early in my training I was practicing takeoff and departure stalls with my instructor. I didn't have enough rudder in to compensate for the P factor, and the lack of coordination resulted in a stall that I will never forget. There we were, hanging on the prop with the nose pointed at the sky, engine roaring and the stall horn blaring. Bam (it didn't actually make a noise, but that's the way it felt), the lower wing tucked under and we went over the top, the nose dropped through and we were into a full blown spin entry.

We always called that type of a stall an "over the top" stall, since the plane feels like it is rolling upside down over the top of something. That short period of being inverted with the bottom falling out is not fun.

For weeks my right leg would shake when I practiced takeoff and departure stalls. It still makes my palms sweat a bit to think about it. Spin training helped get rid of the fear, but it's still not a good feeling.

Tom