Spinning a C172
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Canada
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I'm a bit surprised that you'd put the C150 and C172 in the same category.
For my experience, 150/152/172 all respond reasonably well to the "let go and wait" technique for spin recovery, where others I have spun will demand to be promptly and precisely recovered. I've only heard about other spin approved aircraft which demand a good recovery technique, I've not flown them....
Thread Starter
I didn't anticipate that my question would generate quite so many responses.
I'll have to go and spin a 172 and see if it is like I remember. In the meantime I had a look at Youtube. Lots of 172 spins, this is the best one I think:
The instructor leaves some power on for the entry, which is something I don't remember doing. I like the student's honest reaction at the end of the first demo spin: "Holy cr*p!"
I'll have to go and spin a 172 and see if it is like I remember. In the meantime I had a look at Youtube. Lots of 172 spins, this is the best one I think:
The instructor leaves some power on for the entry, which is something I don't remember doing. I like the student's honest reaction at the end of the first demo spin: "Holy cr*p!"
This year, after a eight year absence, I am back in Canada and will be flying much more modern two-seaters this year - ASK-21, DG-1000 and DuoDiscus. I'm looking forward to seeing how they spin and more importantly, how they recover. Being very low-drag, they accelerate very quickly when pointed downward.
Duo's aren't cleared for spinning AFAIK (due to a tendency to go through Vne in the recovery, I'm told).
K21's won't spin unless you have the spin kit fitted - they end up in a spiral dive.
DG-1000's spin and recover beautifully. A favourite trick of one of my club's instructors is to brief a spinning and stalling sortie in an aft CofG ballasted DG-1000. He'll ask the student to demonstrate a gentle stall and at the buffet he'll apply full rudder. Spin entry is guaranteed (and so is a surprised student!).
Thread Starter
At the risk or raining on your parade...
Don't worry, I have an umbrella.
Thanks for the information. I didn't know about the Duo spinning restriction, which is ironic, considering I have 17 hours in it, flying dual cross-countries in the Southern Alps. However, since I wasn't going to be going solo, the issue of spinning and/or reading the handbook didn't come up. I do remember one stall "attempt", which was more "slow flight with high ROD" rather than a stall.
On the other hand, I have never even seen an ASK-21 or a DG-1000! However, I am intimately familiar with their handbooks, because I have just been teaching at a ground school, where my topic was weight and balance and why the CG limits are specified. Our club uses the ASK-21 as its "basic" trainer and they do have the spin weights and they routinely spin it.
I think the idea of an instructor surprising a student is not a very good instructional technique. If I wanted to demonstrate the DG-1000 behaviour that you describe, I would brief the student and then demonstrate it or if the student was reasonably competent, have him do it.
As an aside, I found the manuals for both gliders very poorly written and confusing. After looking at the originals, I concluded that it wasn't just a case of poor translation. In the case of the DG-1000, looking at weight and cg ranges specified in various places, it is hard to determine what is recommended versus being a certificated limit. The latest version of the ASK-21 handbook has an addendum, containing a USAF document about the spinning characteristics, because the USAF clearly felt that the manual was not satisfactory.
I think the idea of an instructor surprising a student is not a very good instructional technique. If I wanted to demonstrate the DG-1000 behaviour that you describe, I would brief the student and then demonstrate it or if the student was reasonably competent, have him do it.
I'm sure you'll enjoy flying the K21 and DG-1000. Both great flying machines (as is the Duo).
If I were conducting the refresher training I would first demonstrate the classic over banked, stick back pressure, inside rudder, base to final stall and spin entry. I want the student to be totally familiar with what this deadly and all to common scenario looks and feels like. I would then get the student to fly the same profile and then recover when the aircraft departs into a spin.
I also feel strongly that unless you are teaching aerobatics any spin allowed to progress beyond a 1/2 turn is negative learning. What you want to impress upon the student is the necessity of immediate recovery and not letting the aircraft wind up and therefore lose a lot of altitude.
By the way what I have said above applies equally to powered aircraft training.
Last edited by Big Pistons Forever; 31st Mar 2015 at 00:07.