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Old 19th May 2012, 22:02
  #26 (permalink)  
Big Pistons Forever
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Canada
Age: 63
Posts: 5,212
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I think there may be a bit of semantics at play here. It takes 2 turns to establish a true spin for typical GA aircraft ( i.e. non specialty aerobatic aircraft ). If you recover in the first half turn you are not executing a spin recovery you are really just recovering from a stall. The proof is that the aircraft can be recovered with just forward stick and no rudder input at all. To get to true autorotation where
a proper spin recovery is the only way to ensure a safe recovery, you have to let the aircraft go at least a full turn and for most common trainers 2 turns is required. The only time I see this happening is for deliberate spins and therefore if you get into an inadvertent spin why would anyone sit there and do nothing for a whole turn or more ?

When I want to give my students a healthy fright about what happens if you are asleep at the wheel I conduct a power on climbing turn stall slipping in a bit of top rudder at the break (i.e. rudder opposite the turn to cause a skid). The aircraft will roll off the top in fairly dramatic fashion. Even those students with a under developed imagination can figure out a really bad situation is going to develop unless early and aggressive action is taken to unstall the aircraft and control the yaw.

Another great exercise is to do a power off stall but hold the stick full back when it breaks. The idea is to use the rudder to stop the aircraft from yawing and thus starting the entry to a spin. Quite coarse use of the rudder is required but if you get on the rudder the aircraft will stay under control albeit with a big sink rate. This exercise is usually the first time any student has ever applied full rudder in flight.

Finally it is important to note that the above comments applies to common modern GA aircraft. If you are flying a vintage taildragger, home built, or warbirds then the aircraft might have very unforgiving stall characteristics and a proper checkout should include some work in the dark corners of the flight envelope.

Last edited by Big Pistons Forever; 19th May 2012 at 22:50.
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