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Old 31st January 2011 | 12:01
  #17 (permalink)  
BackPacker
 
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Amsterdam
From the expressions on their face, I can say no, and most return post PPL and ask for spin training or aerobatic training - And I'm happy to oblige!
Lots of good things being said about spin training in general. I think it's justified that it's no longer part of the core PPL syllabus, partly because it may well have increased the accident rate instead of reducing it, and partly because the situation where you might get into an inadvertent spin if you're not careful (in the circuit, turning to final) is unrecoverable anyway. So the emphasis on stall recognition/avoidance is something I fully agree with.

But I also think it's a good idea to do some spin training, with a properly certified aircraft, a suitable instructor, in a suitable bit of airspace and with suitable weather. Just to get a feel for what's it like to fly at the edges of the envelope and beyond. However, if you do something like that, I think you should make it into a proper Unusual Attitudes training, covering not just spins and spin recovery, but also:
- Departure stalls: Stalls with full power and a ridiculously high fuselage angle. They do happen if people go from a high-powered airframe to an identical, but lower powered airframe, and misjudge the initial climb angle.
- High-speed stalls, for instance done in full-power, very steep (75 degrees or more) steep turns, to show that, indeed, an aircraft can stall at any speed and any attitude. (You might also want to include ballistic flight, stall turns and wingovers to show that an aircraft can also fly - briefly - below Vs.)
- Recovery from almost-Vne dives (at least well above Vno)
- Recovery from upset situations, for instance from inverted flight
- In-flight engine restarts (plus you'll find how hard it actually is to stop a fixed-pitch engine in-flight)
- Extreme side/forward slipping with or without flaps (very useful technique in case of an engine failure, to make the field when you're too high)
- Steep descending turns (controlled spiral dives) - the fastest controlled method to get down on the ground in case of, e.g., fire on board. And the proper recovery technique of course. Roll, then pitch, but not simultaneously.

And I'm sure there are other things you can throw in here as well.
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