"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
om...


Who cares if one is proficient in spin entry. For normal flight it is a
totally useless ability.


The key words being "For normal flight". Can anyone here guarantee that
they will not be exposed to "unusual circumstances". You never know. You
won't know until it happens, and you become a test pilot. As a flight
instructor, I was once rolled almost inverted in a Cessna 172 on a base to
final turn. Yes, I was not really paying attention. Yes, I was allowing the
student to get deeper (i.e.make more mistakes in a row) than I should have.
I have had spin training, and it works. A private pilot friend in a 150 was
run over by a Piper. (Saratoga nears Van Nuys, I think). He lost a good
portion of the left wing tip and aileron. From left downwind, at night, he
made a high power, right aileron, right rudder, left traffic approach to a
full stop. He planned a "normal flight". He had no intention of
demonstrating the unlikely. The Piper went into an apartment house. It is
very easy to find the edge of an envelope. Ask someone who has packed some
ice around.

If you've screwed the pooch bad enough to get into a spin you are probably
out of
altitude anyway and all the training in the world won't do you any good.


You are partly correct. I was out of altitude, maybe 300-400 feet. Until
then I didn't know the hardware store on short final had a Trane air
conditioner, for instance. You would be amazed at what Thrust & Rudder can
do.

Are you telling me that if something very strange happens to your
aircraft, you will make no effort to rectify the situation? You "PROBABLY"
can't do anything about it so why try? In 7000 hours, I've had 7 engine
failures on 6 aircraft, and landed every one of them on a paved runway. (3
singles, 3 twins) You should go listen to Al Haynes the next time he speaks.
(DC10, Sioux City). The pilots I know, will to a man/woman, fly the biggest
piece to the ground, and park it. Some of them have.


It's all extremely logical.

Try lifting a Lear 24B from the very end of a runway by "pucker" factor
alone, then we'll talk. There should be a another column in the takeoff
distance charts, labeled "Fire warning activated, Single Engine past V1,
Night, Ice/Snow, High Altitude, Heavy, over a 1000' obstacle. Hint: turn the
landing light off.

Al Gerharter CFIAMI