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Old 10th Mar 2011, 07:24
  #49 (permalink)  
bushy
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Alice Springs
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Spin training is essential

I remember, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had been training with the gliding club, doing five minute flights with winch tows. Progress was too slow so I went to the aero club and soloed in their brand new Piper cub. I was the ace of the base. I knew it.
A group of us bought a Slingsby tutor, single seat glider. Soon I got to fly that on an aero tow behind a tiger. I found found lift, but it soon died so I turned back to find it again. Soon tthe nose was pointed to the ground and I could see a fence going round and around in the windscreen. I pulled the stick right back into the corner and put on opposite rudder. The stick did not work, but the rudder did. Soon, despite my efforts it righted itself and I sat there wondering what had happened. I had read about such things. Soon I found more lift and repeated the same process. The rotten thing spun again. I still had plenty of height, but had had enough, so went back and landed. So spin training was obviously needed. I went straight to the aero club and Paul the instructor greeted me by saying "I hear you went for a spin in the tutor" I was not amused,but managed to persuade him to pull a tiger moth out of the hangar and take me for some spin recovery training.
And I was never ever again the ace of the base. I learned a lot that day.

And I see many accident reports that show pilots died after accidentally spinning their aeroplanes at low level. Small and big aeroplanes do it. Airline and military and light aircraft pilots do it.
One of the most important things I read was in a Beechcraft manual. They pointed out that many, many accidents are caused by inadvertent stalls and spins. They advised pilots to never stall or spin their eroplane. Sound advice, but to avoid stalls and spins you need training in both.
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