A Pre-PPL Spinning Story
Half my training was done in Canada, where full spin training is still mandatory part of the syllabus. I quite enjoyed this in a C172, although some days it took quite an effort to get it to spin, rather than spiral dive - I remember a whole hour of spins on a hot sunny day; I'm not usually one prone to going green, but I did gently mention to my instructor that I was beyond learning anything more and could we go home, please?! By the end of around 3.5 hrs of spin / stall training, he was getting me to recover after a set number of turns and on a given heading - that was quite fun!!
That training has saved me from one possible incident in a C150 that dropped a wing in a stall straight into a spin when I was on a pre-PPL solo jolly trying to get my 10hrs solo up.
I had done all the tests, exams, etc and was still an hr short on solo time. Went up for final sortie and was doing 'general handling' sortie in a C152, stalling at varying power settings. Got caught out on one at full power when the wing suddenly dropped and I finished up in a fully developed spin - luckily I was at 5k ft and with the previous spin training was able to recover quickly, but I was a somewhat deflated student after that!! Also, was about 0.8 hrs into the trip when a shower came through and threatened to take Bournemouth (my home airfield) below VMC, so I landed and did a *VERY* slow taxi in to get up to the hour!
I am an advocate of full spin training (with exemption only if you get a signed chit from your mummy that you're prone to dashboard decorating ).