Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "Christian Bobka"
You live and learn. Was talking to my 80ish flying Mentor the other day,about spins, and he said something like " they taught you how to spin,tosave your life".When I asked him to explain, he told me that in WW1 ( a little beforehistime) , with the slow flying Biplanes, if your plane got hit in thecontrolsurfaces, making it unflyable,,, You would put it into a spin, and asit"maple-leafed" to the ground, this would slow the desent to where therewasa good chance that you would survive.walt________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By:h "walter evans"
I was up teaching spins the other day with a student and all I saw was awindshield full of earth. That is not the way I would want to hit.The utility of a spin is that you will always go down. So if you are inyour piet and stuck on top of the clouds and you know the cloud bases are1000 feet or so above the ground. You could spin through the clouds andrecover from the spin at first sight of the ground.There is a caveat. Some aircraft take on unique spin characteristics afterbeing in the spin a few turns. This is a "steady state" spin. Whereas spinrecovery is possible using routine control inputs before getting to steadystate, these same techniques may not work upon reaching steady state.Weight distribution, inertia, control size, deflection limits, aerodynamicblanking of the surface, and a host of other factors determine this.Ask Gary Meadows about this. He is all boned up for his CFI checkride.Chris Bobka