been a long time since my flight training days AND my last flight... so bear with me here:
Low airspeed - high pitch - buffeting - stall warning - poor flight control response - pretty sure there's a couple more but hey, I'm old.
It's actually pretty easy to recognize... the only surprise being if you're not aware that it can occur at any airspeed... IOW... your cruising along at what seems like normal angle of attack and airspeed and suddenly you're in the first stages of a stall. That's never happened to me. The takeoff in Napa I was MORE than aware that I might hit stall conditions with the headwind being as strong as it was.
Other than when I was in the crash I never experienced many 'dire' situations while flying... small glitches here and there was about it. During my checkride the instructor almost flunked me, however... but I had a good reason for doing what I did. He had told me to set the plane down at a small airport by a certain point on the runway OR do a go around.... I didn't hit the mark nor did I do a go around. When he said he was probably going to flunk me I held up the end of the throttle lever in my hand and showed him... it had come off right on my flare at final. He admitted that was a good reason to not go around.
Small things like that are common in today's small planes because they're so old. - JamesJM