Spin training is part of the flight instructor course, but I believe it’s valuable for all pilots. While it’s best to recognize and prevent a spin in advance, sometimes sh*t happens anyway, and it’s crucial to know how to handle it.
In theory, the process isn’t very complicated: neutralize the ailerons, stop the rotation with the rudder, and then recover from the unusual attitude which we’ve been already practicing.
In practice, we set the engine to idle, slow down, and then pull the yoke while stepping on one of the pedals. The airplane starts to spin, and it feels like we’re falling. The Earth is in front of us instead of somewhere below (where it should be), which is truly terrifying! We neutralize the ailerons, push the yoke forward (actually just relax backpressure a little), stop the rotation with the rudder, and wait. After a moment, the rotation stops, and we can recover by maintaining direction and slowly pulling the yoke to reduce quickly increasing speed.
The attitude indicator is useless in this situation; we mainly rely on external references and possibly the turn coordinator (with some caution).
The experience is unforgettable. The main takeaway is that I now know what to do, not just in theory but in practice—a completely different experience.
Our C150 spins relatively easily and recovers well. However, it’s best to act quickly: one rotation takes more than 300 feet, and recovery becomes more difficult with additional rotations.
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