Originally Posted by
mary meagher
If you are an instructor, in power, what type do you use for teaching? what altitude? Do you let the student put it in the stall and recover, then in the spin and recover, or do you deprive him of that valuable experience?
First off the accident statistics are clear. The majority of inadvertent spin entries in both power and gliders occur at altitudes too low to to allow a successful spin recovery even if the correct spin recovery method is used.
It is clear to me that the best way to survive an inadvertent spin is to not let the airplane get into a spin in the first place. Since the aircraft has to be stalled before it can spin, I strongly believe the best way to to avoid spin accidents is stall recognition and avoidance.
This IMO should have 2 components
1) Training in recognizing flight paths that are developing dangerous trends
2) Develop in the student an automatic instinctive reaction of stick forward and rudder (full if necessary) to control yaw, at the first indication of a stall break.
Good exercises for point one are, at a safe altitude in the practice area:
a) Set up a VX climb simulating a short field with obstacles takeoff, make a sharp turn with a sudden pitch up. This simulates the startle reflex when you get close to the trees on climb out.
b) Set up a full flap landing with low power and let the aircraft get slow then pull the nose up like you are getting low but don't add power
c) Demonstrate the base to final killer turn.
For point two all you need is to give the student lots of practice. This should be done not only in the initial stall training, but revisited regularly throughout training.
I demonstrate the items in point one so that I can explain to the student what warning signs to look for. After that it is all student practice to develop those life saving automatic stall recovery reactions.
And do you ever take up a light aircraft approved for spinning on your own, and throw it around just to remember what it feels like?
Nope. When I do spins it is part of an aerobatic sequence in a proper aerobatic airplane, or as part of the basic aerobatic course I teach