When I went through training, we had an excellent 16mm film called 'Spinning Modern Aircraft' which showed what both erect and inverted spins were like in the Hunter T7. Bearing in mind that we weren't cleared to stall the Hunter, let alone spin it, this was an excellent spin awareness lesson tool.
Many 'spin resistant' aircraft can only be provoked into a convincing spin with some trick flying; the type of flying which is highly unlikely to be encountered in normal flying. Who, for example, is going to pull the control column fully aft whilst applying full rudder, then hold it there - inadvertently?
A well-made training DVD showing what spinning is like should be enough to instill sufficient awareness of the fully developed spin into most student pilots. I would sooner concentrate on safe low speed handling and incipinet stall awareness than wasting time terrifying students with frankly irrelevant exercises.
After all, the recent fatal airliner crashes with at least 3 pilots on each flight deck (Perpignan A320 and the Turkish Airlines 737) were most probably due to small technical issues distracting pilots from awareness of the impending stall.
ShyTorque, dogs don't bite unless provoked. So teach people not to - they don't really need to feel the pain!
Last edited by BEagle; 17th April 2009 at 18:04.