AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2019 - 20

PROFICIENT PILOT

Another spin on spins

BY BARRY SCHIFF

Teaching recognition, recovery, and prevention

BARRY SCHIFF

is targeting early
next year for the
publication by ASA
of his twelfth
aviation book.

IT WAS MY EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY, and I was celebrating by taking the checkride for my flight instructor
certificate. I had just completed a two-turn spin,
required during CFI flight tests in those days. During
the agonizingly slow return to altitude-you're lucky to
climb 300 fpm in a fully loaded Aeronca Champ-the
CAA inspector in the front seat asked me to demonstrate and explain an over-the-top spin.
An over-the-top spin? I wracked my brain trying to
comprehend what he wanted me to do. Nor had I ever
heard of the under-the-bottom spin that he had also
requested. I confessed to him that I had never heard of
such spins-and celebrated my birthday with my first
and last pink slip.
My instructor hadn't taught me those types of spin
entries because he hadn't thought they'd be required.
He gave me the necessary instruction, and a few days
later I exchanged my pink slip for a white one.
An over-the-top spin, I learned, involves entering a stall during a full-power climbing turn and then
applying full top (opposite) rudder. The airplane does
a complete roll and winds up in a conventional upright
spin. It's actually fun.
Entering an under-the-bottom spin is less dramatic.
It involves stalling while in a gliding turn and then adding full bottom rudder (rudder in the direction of turn).
The nose falls slowly, and spin entry occurs with less
vigor than when entering an over-the-top spin.
The inspector explained that the most commonly
taught method of spinning involves entering a poweroff, wings-level stall and then applying full rudder in
the desired direction of spin. He added, however, that
"this is seldom the manner in which a pilot experiences an inadvertent spin. A spin most likely to result
in an accident occurs following a departure stall [an
over-the-top spin] or while cross-controlling during a
turn from base leg to final [an under-the-bottom spin]."
CFI applicants today are no longer required to
perform spins during a practical test. They need
only present a logbook endorsement testifying that
they have received spin instruction. Strong anecdotal
evidence suggests, however, that most instructors
receive either minimal spin training or none at all,
despite what's in their logbooks.
Spin training is not required for any other certificate, and this has been a subject of some controversy
ever since the spin requirement was deleted from the

20 | AOPA PILOT September 2019

private pilot curriculum in 1949. Because an airplane
cannot spin unless first stalled, it has been believed
that shifting the emphasis from actual spinning to the
prevention of and timely recovery from stalls would
reduce the stall/spin accident rate.
This sea change in training appears to have been
successful. During the four years preceding the change,
stall/spin accidents accounted for almost half of all
fatal accidents. They now account for only a fourth.
Proponents of spin training argue, however, that
there are still an unacceptable and significant number of spin accidents annually, and that they have an
80-percent fatality rate-they are more lethal than midair collisions. But knowing how to recover from spins
would not necessarily prevent these accidents. The vast
majority of inadvertent spins begin at such low altitudes that there usually is insufficient room to recover.
Pilots fortunate enough to survive a spin accident
often do not realize that their aircraft had begun to spin.
If anything, they recall only a mushing yaw prior to
impact. This is because they experienced only the entry
or incipient phase of a spin, not the fully developed
phase during which the airplane reaches a rapid rate
of rotation with the nose pitched steeply downward.
My view is that pilots do not need to know how
to recover from fully developed spins because such
training would not provide assurance that they could
recover from a spin that might occur in many modern
singles, irrespective of how much altitude is available. This is because manufacturers are not required
to flight test their aircraft beyond a one-turn spin. It
is not known how difficult or impossible it might be to
recover from a spin beyond that first turn.
Knowing how to recover from fully developed
spins probably would not prevent many stall/spin
accidents. It is more important, I believe, to recognize and be able to recover from the incipient stage
of a spin. Pilots and especially instructors should have
the reaction and skill needed to aggressively arrest an
uncommanded, pro-spin yaw with a minimal loss of
altitude. This is why I encourage pilots to seek out a
qualified instructor and build confidence by learning how to enter and recover from incipient spins to
prevent such entries from developing into the traumatic, full-blown spins associated with conventional
spin training.
AOPA
barryschiff.com

http://www.barryschiff.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2019