I already had hundreds of hours in hang gliders and ultralight airplanes by the time my wife said, “We need an airplane that I can go flying in too.” So my experience and comfort level in the air was a little different than many student pilots. So when it came to spin training, I didn't want the standard “just don't get yourself into one” explanation. The flight school had one aerobatic instructor and she was a super nice and beautiful blonde ex-school teacher who was into aerobatic flying. She had her own hot little plane that she competed in.
So we took the flight school's Cessna Aerobat up for a flight. When we got to altitude I did the standard power-off spin entry I pulled the yoke all the way back and gave it full rudder. A wing dropped off and the nose was pointed at the ground and the plane started rotating. I pushed the elevator forward gave pushed full opposite rudder and we came out in a dive which we recovered from quickly. So she said, “That was a spin and you got out of it, are you happy now?” Apparently most students at that time were happy not to do it at all.
I said, “No, we weren't really spinning, we came out of it before we even made a full rotation.” So we climbed back to altitude and we did it again only this time I held the yoke back and didn't release the rudder until we had made a couple rotations. Then we did the same thing the other direction. Then we did one with full power like we were climbing out. Then we did them both directions with me holding the spin for three rotations.
So finally I asked, “What happens if you don't release the elevator and you keep the rudder pushed all the way in?” She seemed to be getting a little exasperated and said that she didn't know because no one had asked to do that before. I got the impression that she really didn't care to find out.
So we climbed to a higher altitude and I pulled the yoke back and I gave it full rudder and we started spinning. By the third time around we were going pretty good, but then the rotation started slowing and by the fifth time around the nose came up on its own and the plane started flying again. I released pressure on the yoke and the rudder and we came out of flying basically straight and level. We were not in a dive and we lost less altitude than the times I made the plane spin three times.
That was enough for me, but she was quite amazed at how it worked with the little Cessna Aerobat loaded with the two of us and tanks that were probably about 3/4 full. If the weight and balance had been different it might not have done the same thing. But I had heard previously that pilots who had managed to get themselves completely disoriented in a cloud sometimes would get themselves into a flat spin on purpose to save themselves back in the 20s and 30s. Different kind of airplanes, different spin and recovery behaviors but something you wouldn't necessarily think of as a way to save yourself.
I have never tried to spin a Cherokee and have heard that they are not a good plane to spin.
“...when it came to spin training, I didn’t want the standard “just don’t get yourself into one” explanation...said that she didn’t know because no one had asked to do that before. I got the impression that she really didn’t care to find out...she was quite amazed...If the weight and balance had been different it might not have done the same thing...I had heard previously that pilots who had managed to get themselves completely disoriented in a cloud sometimes would get themselves into a flat spin on purpose to save themselves...” [fireman15, post 56]
A prudent approach.
Thanks for such a carefully summarized, insightful summary of a strange incident. A caution to us all: while no training system is perfect, civilian flight instruction can be spottier than what military flight training tries to be.
I chanced to undergo instruction for my private pilot certificate while the Air Force trained me to be a navigator. The military regimen contained small amounts of aerobatic instruction, and I paid for supplemental lessons in aerobatics in civil light aircraft as well. No spin training was ever involved.
I didn’t experience a spin in light aircraft until 11 years later, while updating my currency in civil aircraft. By then I was a veteran military aircrew member with over 1300 hours in B-52s in my logbook, including instructor and flight evaluator time (not that we did anything aerobatic).
I found spins to be frightening and disorienting to a degree I had not anticipated. They feel far worse inside the cockpit, than they look to observers on the ground.
Before 1940, flying was a freer, looser activity - or so it seems to those of us looking back from current times. Pilots sometimes tried moves none of us would dare dream of today.
I’d heard the same warnings about Piper’s Cherokee. Never tried anything unusual when I piloted them.
I do recall placards in other light aircraft - Grumman American Tiger may have been one - reading “Avoid Intentional Spins” or similar words. Which caused me to wonder just what I ought to try, if I unintentionally entered a spin.