I spun an airplane today!
- Thread starter bLizZuE
- Start date
CapnJim
Well-Known Member
Good story! I bet the Zlin really whips it around!
My first spin was in a Cessna 172. Not too much to write about. Fun, but not what I would call breathtaking. The entry is fairly straightforward, it continues to rotate as long as you hold full rudder deflection, and snaps out of it as soon as you pull throttle or lift rudder. The 152 is a little more frenetic, but no less benign. A Citabria begins to approach what I would call athletic in the spin, but it's still a sweetheart in the recovery.
The only good spin story I have was when I was trying to instruct one of my more timid students power-off stalls in the 152. I suppose it goes without saying that he had a bit of trouble maintaining coordination throughout the maneuver, but on this occasion he really outdid himself.
He started the maneuver fairly normally, slowing and configuring as you would expect. It seemed, though, that as soon as he heard the stall horn he fell to pieces. He was all feet and hands; rudder this way, aileron the other, until all the pilot-induced oscillations finally got the better of him and he spun-- with full flaps. It would have been fairly easy to recover had he not panicked and shoved the throttle to the firewall. As soon as he did, the whole plane began juddering and tightening it's spiral.
We were high enough (about 4000 agl) that I was content to let him try and sort out his own mistake for a while, until I began contemplating the placard that read "Intentional Spins with Flaps Deployed PROHIBITED". That made me a bit nervous, and after several seconds of watching him tread water it became clear that we were dead as fried chicken if I didn't take the aircraft. I avoid taking the controls from a student like the plague, but you have to sometimes. Especially when he's going to kill you.
"My aircraft." I said, calmly. No response. His mouth was agape, eyes fixed and saucered.
"My aircraft!" I say again, a bit more firmly. I may as well been speaking Latin. he looked vaguely and uncomprehendingly in my direction.
I barked it this time, in the best R. Lee Ermey impression I could muster: "MY AIRCRAFT!!" Bingo. He snapped out of it, blubbered "youraircraft, youraircraft..." and dropped the plane. We were well in the yellow arc and rapidly approaching redline, so I put the flap lever full up, and started a slow, easy pullout from the dive to put as little stress on them as possible. To say they were buffeting at this point would be an exercise in understatement. We were fully recovered at 1500 agl.
I was a little frazzled, but kept it to myself as it was clear my student was now a total train wreck.
"You ok?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry... I got flustered, and confused.." He apologized for several seconds as the stress chemicals worked themselves out of his brain.
"It's O.K, don't worry about it. Relax! I'd like to show you what went wrong, and how you can avoid or recover from it in the future..."
And then we had REAL spin lesson!
My first spin was in a Cessna 172. Not too much to write about. Fun, but not what I would call breathtaking. The entry is fairly straightforward, it continues to rotate as long as you hold full rudder deflection, and snaps out of it as soon as you pull throttle or lift rudder. The 152 is a little more frenetic, but no less benign. A Citabria begins to approach what I would call athletic in the spin, but it's still a sweetheart in the recovery.
The only good spin story I have was when I was trying to instruct one of my more timid students power-off stalls in the 152. I suppose it goes without saying that he had a bit of trouble maintaining coordination throughout the maneuver, but on this occasion he really outdid himself.
He started the maneuver fairly normally, slowing and configuring as you would expect. It seemed, though, that as soon as he heard the stall horn he fell to pieces. He was all feet and hands; rudder this way, aileron the other, until all the pilot-induced oscillations finally got the better of him and he spun-- with full flaps. It would have been fairly easy to recover had he not panicked and shoved the throttle to the firewall. As soon as he did, the whole plane began juddering and tightening it's spiral.
We were high enough (about 4000 agl) that I was content to let him try and sort out his own mistake for a while, until I began contemplating the placard that read "Intentional Spins with Flaps Deployed PROHIBITED". That made me a bit nervous, and after several seconds of watching him tread water it became clear that we were dead as fried chicken if I didn't take the aircraft. I avoid taking the controls from a student like the plague, but you have to sometimes. Especially when he's going to kill you.
"My aircraft." I said, calmly. No response. His mouth was agape, eyes fixed and saucered.
"My aircraft!" I say again, a bit more firmly. I may as well been speaking Latin. he looked vaguely and uncomprehendingly in my direction.
I barked it this time, in the best R. Lee Ermey impression I could muster: "MY AIRCRAFT!!" Bingo. He snapped out of it, blubbered "youraircraft, youraircraft..." and dropped the plane. We were well in the yellow arc and rapidly approaching redline, so I put the flap lever full up, and started a slow, easy pullout from the dive to put as little stress on them as possible. To say they were buffeting at this point would be an exercise in understatement. We were fully recovered at 1500 agl.
I was a little frazzled, but kept it to myself as it was clear my student was now a total train wreck.
"You ok?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry... I got flustered, and confused.." He apologized for several seconds as the stress chemicals worked themselves out of his brain.
"It's O.K, don't worry about it. Relax! I'd like to show you what went wrong, and how you can avoid or recover from it in the future..."
And then we had REAL spin lesson!
SoFlo
New Member
CapnJim said:
My friend that I went through flight school with had a same problem during spin training. Before we started, our instructor said that if i say, "I have the plane, I HAVE THE PLANE". They spun the plane and, well, he locked his hands on the yoke and didnt want to let go. Our instructor was a good sized guy and was fighting with him for control. Eventually he looked over and elbowed him in the face. Seems kinda harsh and a little aggressive but that could have killed the both of them. The recovered at just below 1000. Kinda scary...
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
No story really. Power on stall and the student spun it and then locked up on the yoke AND throttle. Did I mention that they were an amature wrestler? They let go really fast after I hit them. It was something my PPL instructor taught me. He was a 60 something year old retired US Air guy and he said on the very first lesson, "if I ever hit you, it's not because I don't like you, but because you are doing something wrong and I need you to stop and give me the plane." Fair enough.
Van_Hoolio
Well-Known Member
One of the instructors I work with only gives their students one fair warning to use right rudder on the power off stall. Evil!