There is so much b@llocks talked about spinning - it's hard to credit sometimes. It's a shame it's no longer in the PPL syllabus but there's a long explaination for this. When it was taught regularly it usually involved an academic entry at a suitable height with an acedemic recovery after a predetermined and counted number of turns. This of course bore no resemblance to spin prevention in the real world of flying and the reason it was discontinued was that more people were killed practising spinning than were killed unintentional spins.
If spin recovery was practised at the incipient stage with the emphasis on prompt and early recovery, the story would be different. The quick and safe way to recognise a spin is to appreciate that if you have buffet and UNDEMANDED roll at the same time, you are in an incipient spin. The immediate recovery actions should be to centralise the controls. I find it amazing that there are lots of instructors out there who I have spoken to who do not appreciate this fact. The fault lies IMHO with the instructor training system. They try it during their instructor course training and that's it. No recurrent training at all.
Personally, I do a quick ten minutes of very gentle incipient spinning with my students some time just before the end of the course. (Luckily, my club has aircraft cleared for spinning). It's very gentle and no more scary than a wing drop at the stall. I know it's not in the syllabus and I open myself up to criticism for admitting this, but as far as I'm concerned, it's an insurance policy for the student which may save his/her life one day. It makes me feel a bit better once they have their PPL - especially if I like them!
Cubes - if there was an average aircraft for spinning, the two you operate couldn't be further away from the mean. The Extra is designed to spin easily - and does! The Bulldog has odd characteristics thanks to the over - large canopy blanking the rudder. If you don't believe me try spinning a pup and see how different they are. I just hope you have enough ex QFIs amongst the 'friendly ex-RAF Red Arrows and fighter pilots' (quote from Pilot magazine's 'where to fly' supplement) to appreciate this and teach spin avoidance properly
