Amen, Brent. (I wonder how many got it).

One of the things that left me uneasy, way back when I was a fledgling
Aviator, was the uncomfortable feeling that I got a lot of "do this, but
DON'T do that" without any real sense of where the limits were if I DID do
"that". I would like to know what the margins are for a particular condition
of flight - am I right on the edge of disaster or do I have gobs of leeway?
I, at least, am quite comfortable in my l'il ol' 235 because I have explored
as many of the corners of it's flight envelope as I believe appropriate.
Stall, and approach to stall practice, e.g., avoidance, is just one of those
corners I felt the need to chart carefully to know my margins.

Another area that we should all characterize carefully is the best glide
stretching speed for your specific airplane. Did this early on in my test
phase, but my friend and BFR instructor asked me to demonstrate last week.
We started at 5000 feet pulled the throttle and set the prop to it's
coarsest pitch (to minimize drag) and then for a timed period (we used one
minute) noted the altitude lost and also the rate of descent (for
correlation). Did this gear up, flaps neutral, then flaps ~10 degrees and
flaps down. With two aboard and nearly full fuel, N235SP does the best at
about 95 MPH IAS, flaps neutral. Just another corner of the envelope that
should be explored to know your airplane.

Dan Schaefer