In article 402c2ade$1@darkstar, Mark James Boyd wrote:
In article ,
Vaughn wrote:

"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:402bf598$1@darkstar...

Aerobatics with less than 3 miles vis is prohibited
in the US without waiver, as far as I know...

And in the US you would have to remain at least 1000' above the cloud
(assuming class E or class G 1200' agl.)

actually, there are some fairly large areas of "G" airspace
which go up to 10,000+ here in CA and NV. Spin down to cloud level,

Clear retraction of this idea to follow...

then level descent through the deck. I've never done it myself,
but I'd bet money Carl Herold has...

Not a whole lot of traffic in these areas either, so that's
a very minor issue (big sky, little bullet theory).

Stupid? Maybe (for some folks). Legal, sure.

Instant retraction. I just checked part 91. Still need
1000 ft above for VFR in G during day. And no IFR
aerobatics are permitted (that seems fairly non-controversial).

So spinning down to cloud level when above 1200 ft should be
illegal without a waiver (although if done certain ways,
I could see it being safe).

On the other hand, spinning down to cloud level below 1200 AGL
could be legal (although I'd have a hard time ever considering
this to be safe).

but the idea still might have
merit given the theory that clouds are usually soft and empty but the ground
is invariably hard.

The guy who told me he spun through a cloud intentionally in his
Pitts said it was psycholigically REALLY hard to hold the spin
through the 500 foot layer through to break out...

Chinese wise man say: check reg first, then post to newsgroup