CFI-A Lesson 12

Today I went back and did Lesson 12 - the spin lesson. FlightSafety Academy contracts this lesson out to a private company that owns an Extra 300LP, similar to the one shown below. It is fully aerobatic and capable of pulling 10 Gs - positive and negative. This is the same type of aircraft flown on the air show circuit by one of my favorites; Patty Wagstaff. In this airplane, the pilot is the weakest link.

The lesson started with me and another CFI candidate splitting the ground briefing duty. I talked about the various factors affecting stalls/spins and where to be extra cautious to avoid entering a spin by accident or through distraction.

Then came the part I've been excitedly - and a bit nervously - awaiting for weeks. It was time to fly. The other canidate went first, and I hung out by the covered parking spot and waited for their return.

As soon as they pulled back into the parking spot, the instructor shut down the engine and they climbed out. I pulled on the parachute and climbed into the front seat. Climbing in was interesting. The seat is very deep in the cockpit; the base is on the floor, but the front (below your knees) is at least a foot above the floor. Combine this with the fact that the Extra is a taildragger, thus the rear of the plane is sitting much lower than the nose, I felt like my knees and feet were above eye level when I finally got strapped in.

The instructor told me what NOT to touch and he started the engine. The seating position, the parachute on my back, and the high-performance rumble of the engine made me feel like I was sitting in a dragster about to do the quarter mile. The instructor requested an intersection departure and his request was granted. We pulled onto runway 11R at Alpha intersection and he applied full power. My head snapped back as the plane rapidly accelerated. Instantly the tail came up and within 500 feet we were airborne.

There's nothing slouchy about the performance of the Extra. We climbed out at 105 knots and passed 1,500 feet within 30 seconds. In minutes we were in the training area at 6,000 feet. The instructor did some clearing turns and we got down to business.

First, some background. A spin requires two things to occur simultaneously: the wing must stall and there must be a yawing force present. There are four controls of interest in your standard spin and recovery: throttle, ailerons, rudder, and elevator. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, we'd instigate and recover from spins with varying numbers of variables.

First up was a power-off stall into a spin to the left. This is the easiest, since recovery only involves rudder and elevator. My instructor demonstrated this first and I was simply along for the ride. He pulled the power to idle and pitched to about 20 degrees nose up. The airspeed quickly dropped from 120 to 85 knots. One instant we were flying forward and the next, the nose dropped quickly, the left wing dropped, and the plane rolled over onto its back and started rotating in a counter-clockwise helix towards the ground. After a few seconds, there was a distinct pitch change (it's hard to describe) as the plane went from incipient spin to fully developed spin. It all happened amazingly fast. My instructor recovered a few seconds later. We were now 2,000 feet lower and he said we did four turns in the spin. I have no idea how many turns we did - all I saw was trees going in circles before my eyes. We climbed back to altitude and then it was my turn. He talked me through it and just like before - SURPRISE - the wing dropped and we were heading downward and rotating. I added opposite rudder and the rotation quickly stopped. I neutralized the rudder and gave the stick a good push forward to break the stall (the plane shudders slightly when it is stalled, and is very smooth when not stalled). Then all that was left was to stop the descent by pulling gently back to level - don't pull too hard or you will stall the plane again.

Next up was the same thing to the right. The Extra doesn't particularly like to spin to the right due to forces generated by the engine. Nonetheless, it is quite possible and equally dramatic as the left.

Next, we introduced aileron into the mix. When a stall/spin is entered with the ailerons fully deflected, it affects the spin characteristics slightly. When ailerons are deflected in the direction of the rotation, the plane tends to flatten out a bit. When deflected in the opposite direction, the plane tends to wobble (the instructor's word). To recover from this spin, neutralize the ailerons, then proceed as before.

Then it was time to add power to the setup. Power can aggravate a spin due to forces generated from the rotation of the propeller disk and its effect on the pitch attitude of the airplane. The first step in recovery is to pull the throttle to idle, then ailerons to neutral, then opposite rudder, then stick forward to break the stall, and finally recover from the dive.

Next it was time to demonstrate what a typical student might do while turning base to final while landing. The first scenario was a left turn that was too late, so the student adds left rudder to increase the turn rate and pulls back on the stick. The plane quickly stalls and enters a spin to the left. The next scenario was a left turn that crosssed the centerline and continued back toward the centerline, followed by right rudder to re-align with the runway. This has the unexpected result of entering a spin to the RIGHT. So, even though the plane is banked and turning left, the right wing drops and over you go the opposite of what you might expect.

As an instructor, it is critical to know what causes spins and how to avoid them. In this case, all I have to do to prevent this is keep my feet on the rudder pedals and be aware of what the student is doing. If he pushes one pedal too far and enters a stall, I just need to quickly apply opposite rudder to return the airplane to wings level, neutralize the rudder input, and recover from the stall. We did a few demos of how to completely avoid the spin entry. That was quite reassuring.

The instructor then demonstrated the truth in the following statement, "A stall can occur at any airspeed, in any attitude, at any power setting." We stalled at full power going straight up, then stalled again while flying level and inverted, then stalled again at idle power while flying straight down.

With the requirements complete, he wanted to let me experience what 4 Gs feels like. Normal category airplanes - which includes every airplane I fly - are rated for 3.8 Gs, so it's good to know what that feels like so you'll know if you're getting close some day with a student. He demonstrated 4 Gs by doing a simple loop. Then he let me do the loop, but told me to pull much harder on the stick. I did and we pulled over 6 Gs. The force was tremendous.

He had one last item to show me before calling it a day. He demonstrated a spiral. A spiral is similar to a spin in that it rotates while descending. The difference is that the airplane is not stalled. Airspeed builds quickly and if left uncontrolled, can reach the point at which it can break apart the airframe. The solution to this is to level the wings, then recover from the dive.

Before departing the practice area, he wanted to show me a couple aerobatic maneuvers, just for fun. First he pulled us into a vertical climb. As the airspeed slowly dropped, he applied left rudder and the plane yawed around the left wing and accelerated in a vertical dive. This is a hammerhead stall. Next, he did the same thing, but instead of yawing with the rudder, he let the airpeed drop to zero and we started to slide down vertically, while still facing UP! As the speed increased, he flipped the plane tail over nose and we were now descending vertically, nose down. I believe this is called a tail skid.

On the way back to the airport, we passed a Cessna like it was standing still. We were cruising along - albeit downhill - at 180 knots. The instructor lined us up with the runway at 4 miles out and continued the approach at 170 knots. The Extra has no flaps, so I was wondering how he planned to slow down. At about 300 feet above the ground on short final, he set the propeller pitch to fine (which flattens the blades to the airstream), and it felt like he threw out an anchor. It reminded me of accidentally shifting from 5th gear to 1st gear in a car with a manual transmission. The airspeed quickly dropped to 100 knots over the numbers and 90 at touchdown.

Wow, what an amazing flight. It was so nice to have this lesson thrown in near the end. I'm totally jazzed now and ready to complete this training. I suggested to Susan that we sell everything we own, cash in all our stocks, buy an Extra 300, and give rides for a living.