"Ace Pilot" wrote in message
om...
"C J Campbell" wrote in message
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"Ace Pilot" wrote in message
om...
There's a William K. Graham listed as a certified training instructor
on the Cirrus Design web site. He's from San Diego. Anyone want to bet
that is the same guy in the article? If so, Mr. Graham is a CFI and is
instrument rated, which makes the description of the incident all that
more puzzling.

Not really. He did exactly what I would expect a flight instructor to
do.
When he got into an emergency, he followed the manual, not the theories
of a
bunch of armchair pilots on Usenet who think they know better than the
aircraft designer on what to do when a Cirrus spins.

So you don't find an IFR-rated flight instructor going into a spin
during cruise flight puzzling?

No. Not in severe turbulence. Note that he was descending rapidly because of
the turbulence. If he was attempting to maintain a level attitude he would
have had a very high angle of attack, probably much higher than he realized.
The Cirrus is more stall and spin resistant than most airplanes, but it is
not invulnerable. What I find curious is that a flight instructor flew into
there in the first place, but I have to admit having flown into conditions
that I should not have, too. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes. It is
probably asking too much that we never make mistakes in the first place. It
is too bad he lost the airplane, but I think the performance of the Cirrus
in this incident was commendable. It saved his butt when he went poking his
nose where he shouldn't. I can think of a few other airplanes that might
have broken up in flight under similar circumstances.