IO540, that may true enough, in relation to the students, and I didn't mean to re-open here the perennial debate as to how much, if any, spin recovery should be demonstrated or taught to student pilots. I was addressing the skills-set which the instructor should possess. I know of course that instructors do spinning during their FI training, but was struck by the reference above to an instructor who felt uncomfortable about demonstrating spins to a student.
During any flying training, the student may put the aircraft into a situation of potential danger. Indeed, doing so may be part of the learning proceess. One of the difficult judgments for an instructor must be when to let things carry on going wrong in order to demonstrate a point, and when to intervene*. Suppose the student really stuffs it up before the instructor has a chance to take over? For example, during the steep turning exercise, the student pulls like mad, and the aircraft spins out of the turn. This could happen with a very new student, or maybe with an advanced student in whose abilities the instructor has some confidence, doing some pre-test revision. In that situation, if the instructor himself has hardly ever spun since hois course, and isn't confident in his spin recovery skills, a bad situation could get much worse.
*I was recently speaking to a friend who instructs at CFS about this, and he told me that the flying he is now doing ranks as amongst the most dangerous flying he's ever done because he is teaching other highly skilled instructors how to deal with dangerous mistakes made by advanced students, and this involves deliberately putting the aircraft in big trouble (and this is a guy who has flown in some very hairy, sandy places and been very severely shot at).
Last edited by FNG; 11th December 2003 at 17:05.