Accelerated spin in unexpected direction at low altitude

I'm not in favor of making a fetish of full spin and recovery. I worry that emphasis on holding the stick all the way back through a full turn builds the worst possible muscle memory.

Yes,it's worthwhile demonstrating at altitude, but the ground will most likely get in the way of a recovery from a spin out of a turn to base or final. That's where we lose friends. Shears and other nastinesses lurk at low level.

I put a higher priority on recognition of and immediate recovery from an incipient spin.

On Mon, 02 Jul 2018 21:08:21 -0700, George Haeh wrote:

I'm not in favor of making a fetish of full spin and recovery. I worry
that emphasis on holding the stick all the way back through a full turn
builds the worst possible muscle memory.

Yes,it's worthwhile demonstrating at altitude, but the ground will most
likely get in the way of a recovery from a spin out of a turn to base or
final. That's where we lose friends. Shears and other nastinesses lurk
at low level.

I put a higher priority on recognition of and immediate recovery from an
incipient spin.

With respect, accelerated spin entry is a bit different because one
moment you aren't spinning and then suddenly you are. I've had one or two
'interesting' departures:

- While I had an early ASW-20 it departed twice without warning from a
thermalling turn - at least I didn't notice any buffet, etc and wasn't
all that slow (45 kts, 40 degree bank), but both times I'd recovered
within 1/4 of a turn, admittedly 35kts faster and 300 ft lower. These
were both into-turn spins.

- Puchacz 1. In one of the spin practice flights our club insists on at
the start of the season and with plenty of height, I tried a recovery
method that was supposed to minimise height loss. That didn't work: all
that happened was that the Puch did a snap reversal of spin
direction. Not a problem: I saw the reversal happen (remarkably
fast), swapped the applied rudder and came out of the spin without any
problems.

- Puchacz 2. Another annual spin practice. This time the instructor
promised me a treat if we were still high after completing the stall
and spin exercise. We were, so he had me set up a thermal-like turn
(this was a cold, overcast day), at 45kts and a 40 degree bank. Then,
he had me snap the stick back centrally and hold it. The Puch pitched
up, did half a wing-over and spun off the top - IIRC it was an
over-the-top entry, but regardless it was immediately spinning - no
hesitation! Again no problem: I recovered within half a turn at most.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org