Spin Training
The Department of Commerce in 1926 had airworthiness requirements for an aircraft to be recoverable from a spin. Ten years later the manufacturers were expected to include standard procedures for spin recovery. To obtain a private or commercial license an applicant was expected to be proficient in precision spin recoveries. About 1950 the government made a major change by requiring stall awareness instead of spin recovery. Flight instruction was required to include power-on/off stall recoveries from normal flight conditions.

Since a spin cannot occur without its initiating stall, it was thought that recognition and recovery along with manufacturing improvements would lower the stall/spin accident rate. Spins were required only from flight instructor applicants. In the late '80s the accelerated stall was removed as a test requirement. In the mid-nineties full stalls have been eliminated. Stall recognition is now the prime requirement.

The government, not recognizing that the average age of an aircraft is now over twenty-nine years, has presumed that improved airworthiness requirements for spin resistance has eliminated all stall requirements beyond recognition of the stall and situations leading to the stall. Any pilot who learns to fly in a Part 23 certified aircraft is likely to become a statistic if caught flying an aircraft certified prior to Part 23 certification.

The essence of spin instruction is not entering the spin or even to make a recovery. It is that you become aware of those situations and conditions that are conducive to the initiation of spins. Avoidance is the key. The untrained pilot will always try to recover with incorrect control input.

Fatalities are not from intentional spins, but from those where an accidental stall leads to a spin. Safety is a matter of choice. As a pilot you have a choice in the avoidance of controllable risk factors. The more competent pilot is more likely to choose a path of lower risk.

Teaching Spins
The student must first become acquainted with full power-off stalls maintained with yoke all the way back and up while rudder is used to pick-up any wing drop. Rudder turns may be practiced. Next the power-on stalls much the same way but rudder applications must be more in anticipation of any drop. Should a break occur, let the wing get well down before initiating the recovery from the incipient spin.

When you are ready for the spin just continue to hold the yoke back during the 'break'. If you relax during the break you may enter a spiral. Always get the power off and the flaps up when in a spin.

Spin Accidents
It is most likely that any decrease in the stall/spin accident rate has nothing to do with whether or not spins are being taught in training. Figures show that nearly 50% of aircraft accidents were caused by the stall spin. Now such accidents are a little more than 10% blamed on the stall spin. The stall/spin accident rate of pre-1949 aircraft remains over 40%. Having an instructor aboard is not assurance that a stall/spin accident will not occur even in modern aircraft.

12% of small plane accidents result from spins and comprise 25% of the fatalities. 20% of spin accidents had an instructor aboard. 95% of the stall-spin accidents are initiated below pattern altitude. Some aircraft, training procedures, and decision-making training contribute to these statistics. Descending turns from downwind to base and base to final are the most likely encounter points. A relatively high power setting or an increase in power during these turns will make the aircraft easier to stall/spin because of the increased airflow over the tail surfaces. In these turns only a small amount of rudder is required to initiate the spin. Full elevator is not required and any buffet may not be detected. No recovery with flaps was successful.

The only recovery that has a chance is full reversal of the rudder application. Any use of the elevator or ailerons will be counter productive. The more flaps the greater the tail download due to airflow; this causes the aircraft to pitch up without the usual stall warnings. The sequence of control inputs is first in importance but this is closely followed by the timing of control input. The awareness, recognition and prevention of stalls are essential at low altitudes since the spin is not likely to be recoverable. The initial entry into this situation is caused by a distraction. The NTSB says that 40% of these accidents are initiated by a distraction. To get this statistic they must have been talking to a goodly proportion of dead pilots.

Pattern distractions are of several types. The most likely will be some form of radio communication. In cockpit distractions come next. The implied or real presence of other aircraft even if seen peripherally can result in instinctive control inputs conductive to the stall spin.

The avoidance of distraction requires some emotional and intellectual control. The pilot workload is heavy. The addition of a distraction can be the final straw that takes the pilot's mind off the flying of the plane. Out the window go all the planning and the checklist. The distraction becomes the focus of attention to the elimination of everything else. This only has to happen long enough for the initiation of an unrecoverable spin. I have found the best way to minimize the influence of distraction is to create as many as possible. Actual or created makes no difference, just expose the trainee to as many as possible.

No amount of training in spin recognition or recovery will be effective for the low altitude stall spin. Only training in maintaining the angle of attack, bank angle, and airspeed can be effective. More importantly the training program must rely on the development of judgment. The best decisions a pilot can make regarding the pattern size, making the base turn, adjusting the base leg, turning final just right for runway alignment, making approach adjustments of flaps, power and airspeed, entering the flare and holding on to the touchdown are all a matter of good judgment. It's all a matter of judgment training. Do it right and the presence of a distraction becomes a non-factor. Remove the distractions and you abolish the stall/spin and the accident.

In the process of building judgment I structure my lessons to expose the student to adverse situations likely to be encountered. The use of trim, yoke and power is an art. Every flight situation can be varies by an infinite combination of each. I try to reduce the options by having the student set as many constants and use only one variable at a time. I emphasize constant power until the landing configuration is established. Then power becomes a variable. I want to minimize the workload by setting constants where possible.

Preliminary Instruction
--No spin without a stall.
--Aggravated stall gives spin.
--Wing with greater angle of attack stalls, drops while nose yaws.
--Descent is helical (like a coiled spring)
--Only in approved aircraft
--Begin with stall practice
--Spin avoidance from stalls and slow flight by making immediate recovery
--Incipient spin recovery with immediate use of rudder and lowering angle of attack
--Configure for power on/off stalls
--Rudder at stall
Release control pressure, opposite rudder, forward elevator pressure

Spin Causes
Turning with excessive/insufficient rudder
Instrument readings become unreliable
Immediate recovery or enter spin
Skidding turn spin direction goes with controls
Slipping turn spin opposite to aileron
(L-R reading on turn coordinator is best indicator.)

The Stages of the Spin:
1. The stall
2. Conventional
3. Accelerated
4. Inverted flat
Any one of the stages can lead to any of the subsequent levels.

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