Spin Training 101

By Steven Howland

I’ve often wondered what a spin would feel like. Would I freeze with fear? Would I be completely disoriented? Would I lose my lunch? Like most private pilots I’ve been trained to simply avoid any situation that might get me into a spin and to learn to recognize imminent spin conditions and correct these conditions should I feel a spin starting.

To go over the edge and actually spin is not a required part of the private pilot curriculum, but I have long felt the need to tread on that forbidden territory and so I screwed up my courage and asked George Munson, an instructor at Barnes Airport in Westfield, MA, to take me up in his Citabria for some spin training.

Actually it had been years since I had flown a tail dragger, so just heading for the blue skies in this wonderful machine was a treat in itself. I got a chance to get comfortable with the plane cruising out to the practice area and on up to 4500 feet. Then, lined up with the highway below, George talked me through my first spin. “Power back. Come back slowly on the stick. Hold it back. Okay, push on the left rudder.” Over she went and the ground filled the windscreen. George kept talking, sounding more like he was talking about the weather then spinning rapidly toward the hard ground. “Relax the elevator. There’s one half turn. Okay, push on the right rudder. There’s one turn and wings level. Okay, ease back on the stick and level off. How was that?”

“Wow, let’s do it again.” You can guess that I had a grin a mile wide, but I wasn’t quite hooked yet. I had felt disoriented and the sobering thought crossed my mind that if I had been alone, even if I had plenty of altitude, I might easily have been too panicked to actually figure out what to do to correct the situation. I knew I had entered a spin by applying left rudder so I didn’t have to think about which rudder to push to get out of the spin. But what if I wasn’t sure. The AOPA pamphlet Avoiding the Stall/Spin Accident says “If you are confused about the directions, check the turn indicator.” I was too busy staring at the unfamiliar site of the ground rising up to smite me. Without an instructor taking me through the recovery I probably couldn’t have torn my eyes off of the huge patch of green to look at the instruments.

To train or not to train pilots in spins is an often argued question. On the one hand, knowing that most inadvertent spins occur at low altitudes where even an experienced pilot might not have the room to recover is probably why spin avoidance training, and not actual spin training, is the current choice of the FAA. If one entered a spin turning onto short final then that’s the end of that. Period. So just stay away from stall situations and if the stall warning horn goes off turn your attention to flying the plane before you do anything else.

On the other hand, any way a pilot can be more familiar with the handling characteristics of a plane and has more training to deal with potential emergencies should be a good thing.

Fortunately, we are not turning final but at 4500’ and we have lots of room for fun. The next time the plane drops a wing and turns its nose landward I am already more oriented then the first time. There is the highway below going by for half a turn. Relax the stick. Push in the opposite rudder and we finish one full turn. This time I noticed the revving of the engine and wonder if I had pushed the throttle in already. No, we are simply pointed at the ground and accelerating. I guess that means I should ease back on the stick and pull her up to level flight and then back to a climb for more thrills.

Five spins later I am filling great. My legs are shaking with excitement and I feel like I could do this all day.  It’s George’s turn to do a spin while I pull out my digital camera and put it on movie mode (you can watch my 17 second spin video at http://diecastairplane.com/spin/Site/Movie.html). I wondered if watching a spin through a viewfinder might not be a bad idea and it was. As George counted 2 revolutions and then smoothly pulled out of the spin I shut the camera of and admitted, “Okay, I’m feeling sick now, so it’s probably time to head home.” But I do one more spin on my own just to know I can do it. Yee Haw!

As safety training by choice I got an excellent lesson in the realities and dangers of a spin. With increased respect for the potential disaster of an inadvertent spin I have a renewed appreciation of watching my airspeed on takeoff and landing and keeping the ball centered for coordinated flight. The greatest thing about learning this though was that the training was pure thrill ride. For anyone wanting to learn more about what an airplane can really do when pushed you can’t beat piloting your own roller coaster ride.

George Munson can be reached at ADUP Flight Training (413) 562-5666