Mastering Spin Recovery: Essential Training for All Pilots

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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Milestones

04/09/2017: My First Flight
04/25/2017: EASA PPL written exam (6 exams passed)
05/21/2017: Radio Operator Certificate (Europe VFR)
05/22/2017: EASA PPL written exam (all passed)
05/26/2017: The First Solo!
05/28/2017: Solo cross-country >270 km
05/31/2017: EASA PPL check-ride
07/22/2017: EASA IFR English
08/03/2017: 100 hours TT
12/04/2017: The first IFR flight
12/28/2017: FAA IR written
02/16/2018: FAA IR check-ride
05/28/2018: FAA Tailwheel endorsement
06/04/2018: FAA CPL long cross-country
06/07/2018: FAA CPL written
07/16/2018: FAA CPL check-ride
07/28/2018: FAA CPL ME rating
08/03/2018: FAA HP endorsement
06/03/2019: EASA ATPL theory (6/14)
07/03/2019: EASA ATPL theory (11/14)
07/15/2019: FAA IR IPC
07/18/2019: FAA CPL SES rating
08/07/2019: EASA ATPL theory (done)
10/10/2019: EASA NVFR
10/13/2019: EASA IR/PBN SE
11/19/2019: Solo XC > 540 km
12/06/2019: EASA CPL
12/10/2019: EASA AMEL
02/20/2020: Cessna 210 endorsement
08/30/2021: FAVT validation
05/27/2022: TCCA CPL/IR written
05/31/2022: Radio Operator Certificate Canada