EAA Sport Aviation - September 2010

complete times before recovering. It really whipped around and was incredibly fun. It felt like we were flying aerobatics in this old Cessna 172. Technically, maybe we were. Jason wanted in on the excitement, so we started alternating turns.

During one of my turns I probably started having too much fun. After stopping the spin I pitched back too much, started talking, and forgot to add power back in. Jason saw what was developing but waited to see if I would. A few seconds later I felt the controls get sloppy, so I immediately pitched forward and applied power to avoid a secondary stall. This was an eerie feeling, probably one of the most uncomfortable feelings I’ve ever had in a plane. Unlike all the other stalls I’ve ever practiced, this one wasn’t intentional.

I learned several things in those few
short seconds: 1) Accidentally stalling is a
completely different feeling than stalling on
purpose; 2) It’s easy to enter a secondary
stall after recovering from an initial stall;
and 3) All my stall training up to this point
served its purpose. I felt the stall approach-
ing and immediately made the proper inputs
to avoid stalling the plane.

Altogether we did 10 spin recoveries that afternoon. It was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had in a plane with Jason. I flew back toward the airport and made my first landing in a yoke-controlled plane, which, by the way, wasn’t nearly as awkward as I thought it would be.

Experience is a great teacher. It fills the gaps and gives confidence in a way no book can. There is no longer that sliver of doubt about whether or not I can recover from a spin. No amount of reading gave me that confidence. A 45-minute flight did.

I highly encourage you to find an instructor who enjoys teaching spins and a plane that is approved for it and go take a 45-minute flight, if for no other reason than it is a great excuse to go do some really fun flying. The fact that you’ll also be a better pilot is just a bonus.