normal or not normal?

hyphen81

Pre-takeoff checklist
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hyphen81
went up with my CFI yesterday and practiced power on & power off stalls. He then demonstrated a spin recovery. I've seen a video of someone demonstrating a spin recovery and the second the wing starts to drop, he corrects and its over. However, yesterday we ended up in an almost full nose down position and i was looking directly at the ground (it was at this point when I soiled myself). he didn't act like it was anything to write home about while we were up there, but I noticed when we got back to the flight school, he was telling the other instructors about it in a way that made it seem like it was an extraordinary event, which made me think maybe it wasn't a normal spin demonstration and maybe went a little further than he would've liked. i'm just curious to get others impressions on it.
 
Depends on what type of plane your in. My 235 is not allowed to train a spin. I wished I would of gotten some sort of actual spin training like you.

Don't be a scaredy cat. ;)
 
Yes. Depends on airplane, entry, and time in spin. With enough altitude and a competent cfi I would not be concerned.
 
Talk to you instructor and express your concerns.

The spin training I got the wing dropped like a rock. To get out of it was neutral stick, full opposite rudder, when it stopped turning nose down to pick up speed. We were pointed straight down for recovery.

Looking at the ground should not be scarey in a spin recovery.
 
Gotcha, I never got spin training so I'm glad my CFI is willing. I'm not worried or concerned about it, I just wondered if it was normal. I'd actually like to do it again a few more times so I'm more comfortable with it. Stalls don't freak me out really, but that was my first spin..


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Mine let me get into one. Demonstrated one. I then repeated with proper recovery procedures twice. Good experience. I do not practice them in my -10, but do stalls/slow flight regularly.
 
went up with my CFI yesterday and practiced power on & power off stalls. He then demonstrated a spin recovery. I've seen a video of someone demonstrating a spin recovery and the second the wing starts to drop, he corrects and its over.

That's a spin :confused:

I did recoveries from spins after about 3 turns in a Cessna 150 when I was training for my private.
 
So should stall recovery be something you practice either once you start soloing as a student, and/or once you get your license? I can't imagine ever wanting to practice spin recovery on my own, but then again, I'm new. Maybe it's no big deal for experienced pilots.


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Probably a normal spin with a not super spin experienced CFI. Spins seem more dramatic and nose down then they are, familiarity is the cure, but not many of us(myself included) do enough of them to have spins feel normal.
 
So should stall recovery be something you practice either once you start soloing as a student, and/or once you get your license? I can't imagine ever wanting to practice spin recovery on my own, but then again, I'm new. Maybe it's no big deal for experienced pilots.


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You should be practicing stall recoveries a lot before solo and definitely before spin recoveries with your CFI. After you solo and after your ticket, you will still want to practice stalls/slow flight to stay proficient. Experienced pilots try not to stall and if we do, try to recover quickly so that we don't end up spinning. It should become instinctive as time goes along. Sound a stall horn or drop one wing slightly at slow speeds and it should have you correcting by lowering the nose and picking that wing up with rudder. Practice!
 
So should stall recovery be something you practice either once you start soloing as a student, and/or once you get your license? I can't imagine ever wanting to practice spin recovery on my own, but then again, I'm new.

Every pilot should be comfortable doing stall practice/recovery on their own. After a long layoff, the first thing I do is go to the practice area and do lots of slow flight and stall practice.

As for spins, if your plane is rated for spins and you're comfortable doing them, have at it! Aerobatic guys do them all the time.
 
I did spin recovery training in my C150, we usually did 1.5 to 2 rotations and would be looking straight down at the ground. And sometimes you could see the ground through the skylights when we broke over.
 
went up with my CFI yesterday and practiced power on & power off stalls. He then demonstrated a spin recovery. I've seen a video of someone demonstrating a spin recovery and the second the wing starts to drop, he corrects and its over.
Then the person in the video wasn't demonstrating a spin recovery, but rather a spin avoidance maneuver.

However, yesterday we ended up in an almost full nose down position and i was looking directly at the ground (it was at this point when I soiled myself). he didn't act like it was anything to write home about while we were up there, but I noticed when we got back to the flight school, he was telling the other instructors about it in a way that made it seem like it was an extraordinary event, which made me think maybe it wasn't a normal spin demonstration and maybe went a little further than he would've liked. i'm just curious to get others impressions on it.
My impression is your instructor isn't doing his job right. The spin entry/recovery demonstration should have been preceded by a good ground training session on exactly what you were going to do and what to expect at each point in the demonstration. Clearly that did not happen, and that's not the way an instructor should be introducing a new maneuver to a Student Pilot.

That said, a true spin entry/recovery maneuver will definitely include a very steep nose-down attitude since the spin hasn't really developed until at least three seconds and one full rotation after the entry (whichever takes longer). Of course, there is no requirement for spin entry/recovery flight training for any FAA certificate short of CFI, and the FAA has various reasons for doing it that way, so this was beyond the normal scope of Private Pilot training. Again, your instructor should have explained all that to you before the flight, and obtained your agreement to participate (since it's not a required maneuver).
 
So should stall recovery be something you practice either once you start soloing as a student, and/or once you get your license? I can't imagine ever wanting to practice spin recovery on my own, but then again, I'm new. Maybe it's no big deal for experienced pilots.


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61.87

"....
(d) Maneuvers and procedures for pre-solo flight training in a single-engine airplane. A student pilot who is receiving training for a single-engine airplane rating or privileges must receive and log flight training for the following maneuvers and procedures:

(1) Proper flight preparation procedures, including preflight planning and preparation, powerplant operation, and aircraft systems;

(2) Taxiing or surface operations, including runups;

(3) Takeoffs and landings, including normal and crosswind;

(4) Straight and level flight, and turns in both directions;

(5) Climbs and climbing turns;

(6) Airport traffic patterns, including entry and departure procedures;

(7) Collision avoidance, windshear avoidance, and wake turbulence avoidance;

(8) Descents, with and without turns, using high and low drag configurations;

(9) Flight at various airspeeds from cruise to slow flight;

(10) Stall entries from various flight attitudes and power combinations with recovery initiated at the first indication of a stall, and recovery from a full stall;

(11) Emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions;

(12) Ground reference maneuvers;

(13) Approaches to a landing area with simulated engine malfunctions;

(14) Slips to a landing; and

(15) Go-arounds.
 
So should stall recovery be something you practice either once you start soloing as a student, and/or once you get your license? I can't imagine ever wanting to practice spin recovery on my own, but then again, I'm new. Maybe it's no big deal for experienced pilots.


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There is no requirement for you to ever practice Stalls or Stall recovery's, let alone spin entry's solo. The only requirement is that you have to demonstrate a Stall and a stall recovery (similar to what you saw in the video) to the examiner on you check ride.

That being said, I agree that you should be introduced to the spin entry and recovery. However the instructor should have prepared you for it a bit better, letting you know what was going to happen before it did. However it could be it went a little bit further than the instructor intended, which might be why you overheard the conversation you did.



Brian
 
Incipient spins, spins etc are taught and part of the syllabus in Canada, I did about 10 of them before my flight exam, they were not my favourite part.

Turned out that the Flight Examiner asked me to do a spin to the Right in my flight test, I had always done them to the left. Not the best time to do something new. He also asked me to do a stall with 1500 rpm on the engine, again a first time experience. :eek:

After getting my PPL, I explored aerobatics in a 152 Aerobat, basically because I was scared of spins. I decided that I was either going to get past them, or quit fllying (even though I loved it). Turned out to be a great experience.

I agree with others, that the spin demonstration was a good idea, but that the instructor did not brief you correctly. Perhaps it was his snap decision to demonstrate a spin, rather than part of his lesson plan. :dunno:
 
Incipient spin training is like incipient sex training. You might get the point, but it isn't nearly as much fun.
 
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