it will probably find it's way out on its own, with enough altitude.
Agreed, but not from 400ft it won't, which was the estimated height from which the 152 was doing photography. I'm well past it now but I still think the benefit of spin training is to raise the awareness level, as you say -- to
recognise the situations in which it can occur, and the wing-drop before the spin itself. From fading memory, with full power, lowered nose and rudder an alert pilot might have caught the earlier 150 just in time from that situation but it would have been a close thing.
Our Aerobat frightened its owners one day, fortunately from 4000ft. I thought it seemed reluctant to recover after four turns so we filed a report with the CAA. Darrol Stinton duly arrived complete with parachute and passed it as normal as long as the manufacturer's procedures were followed. A great guy who gave me great encouragement ... he didn't disagree when I said I thought it was a horrible thing anyway, how can you do aerobatics with a steering wheel
