It's nice to see this topic being aired, as I feel that the concept of spinning in simple a/c is not always given the respect it deserves. I am particularly pleased to see the Bulldog being cited as I have some experience of its behaviour.
Although I only flew it as a student, I have about 150 hours on type and before leaving UAS was fortunate enough to fly low level aero's in competition in it. So, most of my time was GH with a lot of spinning practice.
The fatal accident referred to happened the year before I joined and resulted in a change of SOP; the parachute was not removed until the pilot was out of the a/c and standing on the ground. It was then placed back in the a/c. Previously it had been removed in-situi, hence the possible cognitive failure by the QFI leading to him falling from the harness.
The student who bailed out leaving his QFI in a cabriolet T MK1 was on the UAS that shared our airfield, and his caterpillar club tie was a good talking point in the bar!
I was once shown the high rotational mode by my QFI shortly before his standards trip, and it was very rapid indeed; I recall 2 turns per second vs 1 per 2 seconds (13 year memory though). Shortly afterwards we were both together and I managed to get into one by accident; I'd never seen him move so fast, and it took several turns to recover. Nothing should be taken for granted.
I also understand that the Bulldog has a flat mode as one went down on the beach near our field a few years previously. the crew got out but the QFI broke his nose as he landed flat on the wing and then had to crawl off the end, his late chute opening resulted in an injured back. To add to the fun, a nearby a/c trying to help, landed on the beach and ended up inverted, requiring the student from the first a/c to assist!
I would refute the comment that no Bulldog has inadvertently departed into a spin. My then best friend, and a keen rival on the sqn, managed to kill himself in one. He had a fit of pique and flew a very low level down the local high street (the reasons are not within the scope of pprune, thankyou) and during the subsequent wing over went into a spin and landed on the beach. He survived the impact but perished in the post crash fire. The BOI considered that he had not allowed for the strong wind and so tried to correct a perceived skid/slip during the turn (external references) and combined with some pre stall buffet the a/c departed. It landed flat and relatively intact, classic spin impact.
Anyway, enough of all that. the only advice i would offer to would be PPl spinnees is make sure you climb to a SENSIBLE height. We used transition level plus ground height as bale out height, plus 2000 ft plus 350 ft per turn anticipated= quite alot thankyou very much. Don't let some tosser spin you at 2000' 'cos he's done it loads of times and it's a C152. Make sure you have a good surface too, part of the hasell cx should be 'no homogenous surface' which just means not over water or cloud etc. the point being that if the sun is obscured you may find it very hard to judge the number of turns.
Finally, it's great to see such professional and esteemed debate, rather than the rantings and abuse so frquently present on these forums.
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Another day in paradise