avoid trees you can’t clear after take-off?. How
are we meant to avoid accidental maneuvers? It
simply doesn’t make sense.
Do you see why I much prefer learning to
do full spins?
But, of course there is a problem. Right now
many flight schools don’t have suitable aircraft,
and even fewer have suitable instructors. But
here’s something to think about. An accidental
spin is nearly always caused by the pilot
mishandling the controls during a stall. So are we
now to say “right, then we won’t teach stalls in case
someone mishandles one and then doesn’t have
the training to recover from the resulting spin”?
I am deeply concerned that this tip-toeing
round stalls and spins creates a psychological
barrier of fear surrounding the whole subject.
So instead of confidence we have trepidation.
Perhaps that dreadful Air France 447 crash
into the Atlantic endorses this opinion.
Could everyone in that cockpit have been so
frightened of stalls they simply couldn’t figure
out what to do? It certainly seems that way.
Anyway, let’s see what the Regulations
have to say about it. Basically, a PPL needs to
be very familiar with the approach to a stall/
spin situation, and must also be able to handle
incipient spins. We regard incipients as the
initial wing-drop stage, although technically an
incipient spin may be as much as three turns of
autorotation before the spin is fully developed.
What do the Regs say about an instructor’s
spin training? I find it interesting that she has
to do full spins as part of her training, but
she doesn’t get tested on it. I find that a little
worrying. Could it be that the testing officers
are not really enthusiastic about full spins?
In a nutshell, we have two conflicting
requirements. First, we must avoid spin
training because the training kills people, and
in any case, most spins happen at a height from
which recovery is impossible. On the other
hand we teach stalls and incipients, which if
badly handled, can lead to a spin. And because
we have never been taught spins, recovery is
also impossible.Getting out of it
All right, enough of the history and politics of
spinning. Now let’s have a look at how to fly a
spin and recovery.
Find a suitable an instructor with a few gray
hairs – one who is comfortable with spins.She will give you an hour-long briefing with
an aircraft model and a blackboard. She will
cover not only the aerodynamics but also the
sensations – so you know exactly what to expect.
A mate of mine Scully Levin was briefing
a bunch of air force pupils on spinning the
Harvard. He was well into describing the spin,
complete with the violent airframe shaking,
and the sound of the canopy rattling, and the
view of the propeller as it slows almost to a
standstill. And the smell of avgas and puke,
and the g-forces that push you sideways, and
the sickening sensation of the world gyrating
around the nose. Suddenly one pupil leapt
up from his desk, muttered, “Excuse me” and
dashed from the room to be sick on the grass.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call
a briefing!
Anyhow, you have had your briefing so you
wipe the vomit from your chin, board your
steed and climb to a sensible height, away
from other traffic.
Your instructor will remind you of the
main points of the briefing before you do your
HASELLL checks – with particular emphasis
on lookout below.
You then smoothly throttle fully back –
and make very sure it is fully back because a
bit of power can make a massive difference to
the way she spins.
Now you enter exactly like a normal stall.
As the plane reaches the stall you pull the stick
firmly right back into your stomach and push
one rudder all the way – let’s say left rudder.
She will drop the left wing, the nose will follow
it down and you will do between one and
three turns of slightly unstable autorotation
(the incipient stage) before she settles into a
steady spin. The difference is only of academic
importance at this stage as the recovery
technique is identical whether it is an incipient
or a fully developed spin.
Keep the controls in their pro-spin positions
until you want to recover. Count the turns by
watching the gyrations of some prominent
landmark When you are ready to recover, simply:- Confirm the throttle is still fully back and
ailerons are centered - Apply full anti-spin rudder (in this case
right rudder). - Pause for the count of two
- Move the stick smoothly and firmly forward
until the spinning stops. - Centralize the rudder
(^58) Master class
AUSTRALIAN FLYING January - February 2015
LEFT: A spin sequence as seen from the front seat of a Decathlon. In the first shot the airspeed
is just above the stall as the wing drops. In the second, the nose has dropped and the vertical
speed starts to increase. The yaw indicator at the top of the Aspen is deflected to the right. By
the third frame, the VSI now reads 3000 fpm rate of descent, but the airspeed has increased only
marginally. In the last frame, recovery starts with the aircraft nearly vertical. The airspeed is
increasing rapidly. Note how the ball under the compass swings as the aircraft spins
STEVE HITCHEN