Sometime back I had to get my spin endorsement to get my CFI. My CFI did
the first one. I was entirely unprepared for what happened. I had no idea
how quickly the nose fell, the nose down attitude during the spin, and how
fast it rotated. Based on what I had read about spins, I didn't think we
were spinning. I had no idea what was happening. The only thing that
crossed my mind was structural failure. Had it happened to me while solo, I
doubt I would have recovered.

So, here's my point. Get spin training. Several months ago a friend of a
friend accidentally spun and didn't recover.

A few weeks ago I went up in a great little Super Decathalon with a CFI and
decided to take along my camera to get video of a spin. Don't worry, my CFI
friend did all the flying while I worked the camera. Follow the link below
to see the videos. Note how quickly the nose drops. It takes less than
three seconds to go from nose high to very, very nose low. I don't think
the videos really demonstrate how abrupt it is. In the plane it seems to
happen in the blink of the eye.

Please right click and download them. Otherwise you'll have to replay them
because they'll stall (no pun intended). Replaying them will just use up
the allotted bandwidth on the site I manage.

http://www.insyncexotics.com/spins.htm


Kind Regards

Richard Mandel (rmandel(-at-)yahoo(.dot.)com(remove the (-at-) and (.dot.))