Originally Posted by
India Four Two
I would like to re-emphasize what you said about the aft CG limit. It is a flight condition that pilots should treat with great respect, particularly since most pilots are probably not very familiar with it. I have many hours in four-seat Cessnas, but I have only had four passengers on two flights, so aft CG in Cessnas is not a condition that I have much experience with.
I will second the point about the dangers of a
departure from controlled flight with an aft C of G.
However before your C 172 can spin it must first enter slow flight, then it must stall, then after it stalls it must yaw through more than 180 deg of turn.
Spins were removed from the PPL syllabus in most countries for 2 reasons.
1) There were more crashes in training than in real world inadvertent spins, and
2) The real world inadvertent spins generally occurred at such a low altitude, typically as a result of badly mis flown circuit, that recovery
from the spin would be impossible.
I emphasized "from the spin" in point 2 because most of those "stall/spin"accidents were recoverable
if the aircraft had recovered from the initial stall and not have been allowed to progress to a spin.
Transport Canada has licensed me to both teach aerobatics and teach instructors how to be aerobatics instructors.
However I don't teach spin recoveries in the PPL per se. Instead the emphasis on training is on stall recognition and recovery. If the aircraft doesn't stall it can't spin. If it does stall and a prompt recovery is made including controlling yaw
it can't spin.
A deliberate spin is an aerobatic maneuver. A C172 is not intended as an aerobatic airplane and IMO deliberate spins should not be preformed in this aircraft.
I highly encourage new PPL to take at least a basic aerobatics course. Spins will be covered but also a lot of other maneuvers which will greatly increase your skill and confidence in all your flying.
By the way the majority of glider stall/spin accidents occur below 400 ft AGL.....