birdog wrote:
"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...
birdog wrote:
As an 80 year old ex-pilot, I am astonished at all this talk about spins
by presumibly experienced pilots! When I went thru training a century
ago, we did spins before we soloed! Of course, virtually every aircraft
in that day was prone to inadvertant spins, whereas GA aircraft today are
almost incapable of spinning. In addition, we were recovering from
unusual attitudes under the hood (needle, ball and airspeed, no gyros)
and recovering from inverted with minimum loss of altitude (don't
remember what the minimum was at the time, but it wasn't much) before we
were signed off as competent of unconditional flight.

I really enjoy this NG, learning a lot about all the aids and equipment
available nowdays, and especially enjoy the discussions on airmanship.

They grounded my ass quite some time ago, but my heart is still in the
air.
Your points are well taken, but in the interest of clarity, I wouldn't
make the comparison between the GA planes of yesterday and today going
quite so far as to say the GA planes today are "almost incapable of
spinning". This simply isn't true, and if the two aerodynamic factors
required for a spin to occur are present, (stall and yaw), the vast
majority of the current crop of the GA fleet will indeed spin.


--
Dudley Henriques

Point well taken. Most of my latter day flying was Tripacers, Cessnas,
Bellancas, Mooneys - not aircraft you would take up to practice aerobatics.
Along the way an Aerobat and a Citabra for foolish endevours. Had an 7AC
Champ that would NOT spin solo. Had an old P51 pilot try it, among others.


You and I probably learned to fly around the same period. It's funny
about the "old P51 pilot" and the Champ. I have a few hours in P51's
myself and have spun the Champ many times. I can't explain why the 7AC
you are referring to wouldn't spin, but I've never had problems spinning
them. The only variable I can see in the Champ equation might have been
pilot weight and fuel, but I've never run into this issue with a Champ.
There are several Champ owners on the forum who might be able to shed
some light on why yours wouldn't spin.


--
Dudley Henriques