snip
Also there is the 'practical' side of how many student pilots would we
lose
after their introduction to spins. Goodness knows, initial exposure to

stalls is already a big issue with fresh students.

Cecil
The apprehension is quite common and normal. The difference is in how a
CFI deals with it and adjusts the training technique to make a student
comfortable with stalls. I feel the same is true with spins.
As a CFI since 1966, and having done literally thousands of spins in a
variety of aircraft, I have long touted the value of good spin
training. My first spin was on my first solo when I was out doing
practice stalls and got sloppy and ended up in a spin. It fascinated me
and I did several more before I went back in to do some T/Go's. when my
CFI asked where I had gone, I told him about the spins, and he simply
said, "OK" and that was that. No big deal. Of course that was in the
late 50's when spins and training in them were a common place thing.
I still maintain the reason for the FAA backing down from spin training
was due to the people making the regs were afraid to do them because of
their own lack of training or proficiency in spins in that transition
time of the 60's/70's.
Most recently I did a short spin session with a student before he went
for his check ride. He told me he was really nervous about it from the
horror stories he had read. I assured him we were not going to do
anything dangerous and he'd be shocked at how relatively mild the whole
thing would be after the fact. Pretty much turned out that way and
calmed his fears that a spin was tatamount to a smoking hole in the
ground.
It almost falls in the same catagory with tailwheel training and
finding someone capable of teaching in them. It has turned into a
mysterious arcane art demanding superior pilot skills, etc, etc, ad
naseum. Such nonsense. Even though spins are required of the CFI
applicant, I often wonder how many of them actually have done them
rather than just get a sign off by a CFI who is afraid to do them and
so the problem propagates itself.
More opportunity for hangar talk.....
Ol Shy & Bashful





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