This lesson learned has no NTSB report as it didn’t end in disaster. In fact it’s an actual account of an experience I had with a student and good friend of mine.
The Story
It was our first day of checkride prep with my student and to my astonishment we had done all his flight training without conducting turning stalls! So amidst our slow flight and steep turns I asked my student to conduct a stall with a 15 degree turn to the left. “What!” my student exclaimed. “Were going to spin it if we do that!” At least he knew the possible consequences. He asked if we could climb to 4,500 feet so he’d feel safer just incase we did. Upon reaching our altitude we preformed our pre-maneuver checklist and started the maneuver. We decided to make it a power on stall, we slowed the airplane down to rotation speed and my student applied full power and pitched to simulate and exaggerated takeoff. “Here we go he said” as he started the turn.
“No need to add full power” I said. “try 2100 RPM’s, we’ll never stall at full power.” He brought the power back down some and continued pitching back.
“Here comes the stall!” he said as the buffeting began. Then WHAM! The airplane broke hard right (the opposite of what my student was thinking it would do) His initial reaction was to crank the yolk hard left which only aggravated our spin.
There we were looking at the ground and spinning. I kept my cool and remained with my arms folded hoping he’d figure out what to do on his own. He said out loud “Reduce power, neutral ailerons, opposite rudder.” Then like magic we were flying straight and level again. My student looked at me and shouted “Why didn’t you save us!?!?” “because I knew you could do it” I said with a grin.
The Problem
My student knew the possible outcome if he didn’t recover properly from the turning stall. But he reacted on instincts and just aggravated the spin. Remember at slow airspeeds your rudder is the most effective thing. Instead of applying full opposite aileron, he should have stepped on the rudder to maintain our wings level status.
The Solution
Know your spin recovery by heart. Power back, neutral ailerons, opposite rudder (from direction of the turn)
Ask your instructor if you can practice spins, I think spins are a crucial part of flight training and no student should be put up for checkride without having conducted and recovered from one. Be sure to go up with an instructor when doing them. Never attempt spins solo or without completing a weight and balance. Also always choose a safe altitude. I usually choose 5,000 feet plus.
