RIGHT SEAT RULES NO. 26 SPINNING

I have been doing some long-range mentoring of a new instructor. I called her the other night to find out how she was getting on with her patter and preparation for the flight test.

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She had been due to patter spinning in a little C152 and I had told her this was going to be fun - she would enjoy it and it was perfectly safe. So when I called to find out how it went I was blown away by her story.

THEY ENTERED IN A NOSE-HIGH attitude and left on about 1600 revs to make sure there was sufficient rudder authority to get the show on the road. It seems they spun so fast that she was unable to count the turns - the countryside was a blur with no identifiable features to count.

Was the stick fully back? She was not sure.

Was the throttle fully closed? She was not sure.

Were the ailerons neutral? She was not sure.

How did they recover? Stick forward and opposite rudder.

REALLY? In that sequence? She was not sure.

Was there a pause between the two actions?

No.

Was she able to patter it? Nope it was much too fast.

They did two spins to the left and gave it up for the day.

I found the whole thing deeply worrying. Either she was a panicky little girl - which she I was not in the least. She is an an intelligent, calm, solid, instrument rated, commercial pilot. Or there was something else going on. They were going to fly again the next day so I risked putting my oar in and doing some long-range patter over the phone and made her write it down. This is how it went: As you enter the spin - throttle fully back.

Confirm the stick is fully back.

Confirm the airspeed is close to the stall (not in a spiral dive).

Confirm the direction of rotation.

Confirm the ailerons are neutral.

Firmly apply full opposite rudder.

PAUSE.

Move the stick forward until rotation stops.

Level the wings and pull out of the dive.

The 'pause' is bold and underlined because if you ease the stick forward first - even by a millisecond - the spin can speed up to the extent that you can't count ground features going past.