Big Ears, B-Line Stalls, and Spirals: An Introduction to Descent Techniques

Every so often, a flight calls for losing altitude quickly and under control — cloud is building underneath you, you're overshooting a landing approach, or you simply need to descend faster than the wing's normal glide allows. Three techniques cover most of that need: big ears, the B-line stall, and the spiral dive. They differ a lot in mechanism, descent rate, and how much they should be attempted without proper training first.

Big ears: gentle, simple, and beginner-appropriate

Big ears means pulling in the outer A-riser lines on each side of the wing, folding the wingtips under so they stop generating lift. The wing keeps flying stably on its remaining centre section, but with reduced area it sinks faster — typically a moderate, controllable increase in sink rate. Speed and direction stay largely manageable, and many wings can still be steered with weight shift or gentle brake input while big ears are in.

Of the three techniques, big ears is generally considered the gentlest and most appropriate for a newer pilot to learn early, precisely because the wing stays in a stable, largely predictable configuration throughout. It's commonly used for things like descending through a layer of light lift near cloud base, or losing modest height on approach without picking up excessive speed.

B-line stall: a bigger sink rate, a different feel

Pulling the B-risers (the second row back from the leading edge) down forces a partial break in the wing's smooth airflow across a wide chordwise band, dramatically increasing drag and sink rate — noticeably more aggressive than big ears. The wing typically stops moving forward much and descends close to vertically while held, and needs a deliberate, correctly-timed release to return to normal flight without provoking a surge or a temporary parachutal stall.

Because the release technique matters and the wing's behaviour during and immediately after a B-line stall is less forgiving of a mistimed input than big ears, this is squarely a technique to learn under direct supervision, not to try for the first time solo based on a description like this one.

Spiral dive: the fastest descent, and the least forgiving

A spiral dive uses a sustained, steep turn to build up centrifugal load and a genuinely high sink rate — by far the fastest of the three techniques, and the one most capable of losing large amounts of altitude quickly. It's also the one that carries the most physiological load on the pilot (G-force can be substantial in a well-developed spiral) and the most technical exit requirement: recovering from a fully developed spiral incorrectly, or too abruptly, can itself provoke a dangerous situation rather than resolve one.

Spiral dives are typically the last of the three techniques introduced in training, and are usually only practised meaningfully under an SIV course (a safety-oriented training course flown over water with a safety boat, run by a qualified instructor) rather than learned by trial and error in ordinary flying.

Why "read about it" isn't "learn it"

All three techniques share a common thread: the entry is often simpler to describe than the exit, and getting the release or recovery wrong is where real risk concentrates. A pilot who has only read a description — including this one — and attempts a B-line stall or spiral for the first time alone, at low altitude, or without a supervised course behind them, is taking on real and avoidable risk. This is exactly the kind of skill where structured, supervised practice (ideally over water with a safety boat present, i.e. a proper SIV course) is the appropriate way to learn, not solo experimentation based on general descriptions.

Choosing the right tool for the situation

In practice, big ears covers the majority of ordinary "I need a bit more sink" situations most pilots encounter, and is the technique most instructors introduce first and most comfortably. B-line stalls and spirals exist for situations needing considerably more descent rate, and come with correspondingly more technical demand and less margin for a mistimed exit. Treat all three as skills to build progressively under a certified instructor's supervision, ideally reinforced with a proper SIV course, rather than techniques to attempt for the first time when you actually need them in flight.