Approval for Aerobatics
An interesting issue I spotted the other day.
I was doing some evaluation work on a UK registered light aeroplane which is also quite prevalent (and originated in) the USA.
In the USA it's authorised for aerobatics, in the UK it is not.
Going through the US POH, it lists the normal authorised manoeuvres, but explicitly prohibits deliberate spinning. Not sure if it's relevant, but the POH also recommended a fairly non-standard spin recovery drill, which presumably was properly evaluated.
I don't have ready access to the information, but I'm guessing that the reason that the UK declined to approve it for aeros may well be the opinion that an aeroplane should not be flying aerobatics if it's impossible to practice spin recovery in it. I tend to agree with that viewpoint. [Although, it could of course just be a lack of faith, for example, in the structural integrity - I honestly don't know and UK authorities tend not to be very sharing with such data.]
Anybody got a view on this? Is it ever acceptable to approve an aeroplane for aerobatics when that doesn't include spinning?
(I'm not trying to get it an aerobatic clearance - this is a purely academic question.)
G