Originally Posted by
Pace
BPF
The same goes for a full spin! It is important that a pilot knows when an aircraft is in a spin and in a spiral dive as recovery methods are very different yet a pilot untrained in recovery from either cannot be expected to identify or recover from either or even identify an aircraft changing from a spin into a spiral dive (the recent PC12 crash)
I do not agree at all. A full spin is by definition
at a minimum of more than 1 full turn as the first turn is part of the incipient spin phase. For any airplane the average reader of this forum is likely to fly
at any point in the incipient spin phase applying forward stick and rudder against the yaw will result in an immediate recovery. To get to the point where a full anti spin procedure is required for a safe recovery, you have to let the aircraft go through at least one whole turn
while holding into spin controls.
The solution to spin accidents is to develop the
automatic reaction to a stall of
stick forward, full power, rudder as required to stop the aircraft from yawing. If that automatic reaction is there then the aircraft
can not spin.
The accident record is clear. Most stall spin accidents occur at a altitude that is so low successful recovery is unlikely. Stall recognition and avoidance is what is going to save lives, not teaching PPL's how to recover from a fully developed spin which is by definition an aerobatic manoever.
As for your comment on the PC 12 accident. Anybody flying a 4 Million dollar high performance aircraft should IMO opinion have undergone formal upset training. Again the focus of all the upset training I have seen is early recognition of the upset and the most effective methods of returning the aircraft to controlled flight. I have not seen one of these programs that lets the aircraft get into a fully developed spin before starting a recovery. In any case the ultimate cause of the PC 12 crash was not the inability to recover from a spin it was extremely poor decision making by the pilot when manoevering around convective weather.
I will end on a point I have often repeated. Want to learn about spins?? Don't do it in a spam can with a regular hours building instructor, take an introductory aerobatics course with a properly trained aerobatics instructor in an aerobatic airplane. Not only is it great fun but you will learn how to control the aircraft no matter what its orientation or attitude.