I promised to test one of the ideas for getting out of clouds alive (from the thread on Lucky Chuckar). This one involved gear down, full spoilers, full cross control, and manage speed with the elevator (by listening).

Results:
In the above configuration, the Ventus C has a strong and abrupt tendency to go into a steep dive with stick full back. closing the spoilers with controls still fully crossed results in a dramatic pull-up. I did not have the flaps extended for this experiment.

Conclusion:
maintaining a safe attitude and controlling speed in this configuration is impossible. It does result in a rather impressive rate of descent though....

I might try this again with spoilers fully closed one day, with fresh underwear...

Matt