Spin Endorsement

The endorsement reads “I certify that Pat Pilot has received the required training of section 61.183(i). I have determined that they are competent in instructional skills for training stall awareness, spin entry, spins, and spin recovery techniques.”
This endorsement is required to become a flight instructor. About a third of all fatal general aviation accidents are stall/spin related. Too many commercial and military aviation accidents also have this root cause. Most, if not all of these accidents are rooted in a deficit in training. The first few hours in an airplane set the basics for the rest of your flying career. The four fundamental flight maneuvers of straight and level, turns, climbs, and descents set the foundations for all subsequent training. Understanding the effects of manipulating the flight controls is the key to being able to perform these maneuvers.
Wolfgang Langewiesche wrote ‘Stick and Rudder’ many years ago but it still speaks to the core of the issues. One of my students explaining how the controls work to grade school students said “Yes, No, Maybe.” The elevator pitches your head for “yes.” The rudder yaws your head for “no.” The ailerons roll your shoulders for “maybe.” This keeps the concepts of up and down out of the conversation. Airplanes aint natural. Our instincts and “common sense” understandings will kill us.
You have never heard of, or seen a monkey fly an airplane. The joke at UPT is that “we can teach a monkey to fly, but we don’t have the time so we got you.” But you know the air force would if it could. The monkeys would be cheaper and certainly whine less than pilots. You can train monkeys to do almost anything. The reason it is doomed to failure is that airplanes act a somewhat inconsistent manner depending on where in the flight regime one operates.
When lots of air flowing is over the wing pulling back creates more lift and we go up. Turning the yoke to the right lifts the wing and we start turning right. But wait, the nose pulls left if we don’t give a touch of right rudder. Adding throttle increases the noise from the engine and things happen. If we don’t make any other control inputs we will climb, and go left. We can make inputs and stay at the same altitude and go faster.
When not much air is flowing over the wing pulling back causes the nose to drop sharply down. Trying to lift the wings with the yoke does not seem to do much but make the nose drop more. Adding throttle causes things to get worse and all of a sudden the world is spinning. PULL HARDER…ADD POWER…witnesses stated that the aircraft impacted terrain in a nose low attitude. Impact forces exceeded tolerances for human survival.
What is a spin? A spin is an aggravated stall with autorotation. How do you do that? Just stall and add some yaw (rudder). What the heck is a stall? A stall is when the airflow separates from the wing and stops producing lift. What causes a stall? Excessive angle of attack causes a stall. How do you recover from a stall? Reduce the angle of attack. This dooms the monkey. When primates are scared they hang on tight, pulling back maybe even into the fetal position.
I had a student once who said “I want to be a professional pilot.”
“Yeah, lots of people do.” I responded.
“No, I mean really.” He said. He had his private certificate and wanted to progress through instrument, commercial, and instructor as rapidly as he could. That was March 2006, by December he had achieved his goals. For the sake of the story he was a shrimp salesman. (Really he sold food to restaurants) This guy was serious, training several times a week. It pushed me to perform at my best. The spin endorsement was a challenge to me. I realized I needed more training to provide him “competence in instructional skills in training stall awareness, spin entry, spins, and spin recovery techniques.”
I sought out the best in the business to teach me. Mr. William “Bill” Kershner was known as the spin doctor. I signed up for the basic aerobatic course and begin a journey that will last as long as I can fly. Mr. Kershner began flying in 1945 was a Naval aviator and test pilot. He wrote many very useable books combining country-boy comics and PhD level mathematics in a humorous style that promotes learning. He was fighting cancer at the time and provided the ground instruction while his most excellent protégé translated the academics into practice. Catherine continues to build upon the legacy. http://www.aceaerobaticschool.com/
With these new insights I trained Steve and others. The joy of aerobatic flight continues to motivate me to understand and practice as much as possible. A solid understanding and respect for stalls and spins is essential for all pilots but especially instructors.
A common misunderstanding is the role of airspeed. “Speed is life” is a saying that has some validity. If you keep airflow over the wing it flies. The airspeed indicator gives information on the difference between ram air pressure at the pitot tube and the static port. Indicated airspeed is what you read off the instrument, calibrated airspeed is indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and position error. The difference can be large and is not calculated for uncoordinated flight. Slips and skids describe the types of turns made without appropriate rudder inputs. Often pilots use slips on purpose and skid due to a lack of proficiency. Additionally the airspeed indicator lags a few fractions of a second behind what is occurring and gives little indication of the trend. What causes a stall? Excessive angle of attack causes a stall. The airspeed indicator gives us old data of questionable accuracy of an indirect measure of a byproduct of angle of attack.
Angle of attack is the angle between the relative wind and the chord line. When we load up the wing by pulling back on the elevator we increase the angle of attack. We need to do this when turning, because some of the lift that was formerly opposing gravity is now changing our direction. The term load factor is a ratio of the lift produced to the weight of the airplane generally measured in Gs. The stall speed increases at the square root of the load factor. In a 2G turn an increase of 40% means that if it “normally” stalls at 50 knots it now stalls at 70. This why it is good advice to keep bank angles mellow especially when close to the ground, like in the pattern.
The results of these misunderstandings can lead to risky mistakes. A pilot that thinks “I just go real fast and then I won’t stall” often ends up losing directional control on landing and or running off the end of the runway. Most light aircraft do not have spoilers, thrust reversers, or 16 wheels with an advanced anti-skid system designed to stop the airplane. The smaller aircraft are designed to fly at much lower speeds and stall at much lower speeds. The ideal landing strategy is to stall the wing either just prior to landing or shortly after touchdown thus making the wings quit producing lift. This takes weight off the wings and places it on the wheels. The effect of additional speed on landing distance can be dramatic. (hope the runway is long enough) The airplane still wants to fly and any errors in crosswind technique bump up the hazardous of directional control, and off you go into a ditch. (hope the runway is wide enough)
The points I am trying to make is that pilots should be taught to understand, respect and control the angle of attack. Stalls are predictable controllable events. Flying the aircraft with the concept that pitch and power equal performance leads to confidence rather than chasing the airspeed indicator. If the airplane is flown at the recommended approach speed it is much easier to control. That is a lot of background information that should be passed on to pilots. Learning how to initiate and recover from intentional spins is loads of fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2HbMEmJQgo
We start with a thorough preflight with additional emphasis on weight and balance. Some of the other details we look at include making sure there is no slack in the controls and that all loose items in the cockpit are secured. Next we make sure the weather is conducive and select a practice area that is both safe and legal. During the climb to altitude we review the pre-maneuver checklist.
Clear airspace: making sure there are no aircraft, birds or obstacles at, above and below our altitude.
Heading: picking a visual reference to help maintain orientation
Altitude: legal and safe
Performance: airplane configured properly
Safe place to land: in case of engine trouble

I generally start with some power on and power off stalls to relax the pilot. I used to demonstrate the first spin with a power on entry now I ask the pilot. The power-on entry is crisp and sure but more dramatic. The power-off entry is mushy and often deteriorates into a steep spiral but does not tend to make the pilot apprehensive. After a few incipient spin entries we progress to fully developed spins. The generic spin recovery is:
Power - to idle
Ailerons -neutral
Rudder -full opposite
Elevator - briskly forward
(Dive) -recover smoothly from

Power to idle because we are descending fast enough and it eliminates torque and other left turning tendencies. Ailerons neutral because of the effect of aileron deflection and wing camber (angle of attack). Rudder full deflected against the spin, this is how we eliminate the yaw. Elevator briskly forward to break the stall (reducing the angle of attack). This leaves the aircraft in a nose low attitude (dive) and we can rapidly build up airspeed if left unchecked. Vigorously recovering from the dive may lead to an accelerated stall. (Remember the load factor stuff?)
Spinning is a lot of fun. Recovering from the spin is an integral part of the fun. Aerobatics help hone the skills by controlling the entry and exit to specific headings and attitudes. I love being able to help train the next generation of trainers. The stall spin accident remains one of aviations biggest killers. The Colgan tragedy in 2009 resulted in sweeping changes in certification standards for passenger airline flight crew. The changes added a considerable number of hours and ratings for a co-pilot. Interestingly the accident crew would have been qualified under the new rules. In my opinion the idea was that the inexperienced regional crews just don’t know how to fly so let us make sure they have lots of hours before they can warm the right seat. Later that year an Air France aircrew maintained an aerodynamic stall from 38,000 feet. These tragedies might have been prevented if the pilot(s) had reduced the angle of attack. I am in no way judging the competency of the aircrew for I have no idea how I would react faced with the same conditions. I do however try to instill in my students a firm grasp on what causes a stall and how to recover.
Don’t let the monkey kill you.

Praise God, I have a medical!