[geeks] Mac definitions

erie patsellis erie at shelbyvilledesign.com
Sat Jul 16 14:36:08 CDT 2011


On 7/15/2011 8:38 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:

...

I'm likewise given to understand that, in similar vein, the Sears
private PILOT school stopped teaching spin recovery some decades ago
now.  Again, because it "alarms the students".


You want fucking alarming?  Try being in a flat spin that you DON"T KNOW
HOW TO GET OUT OF because the flight school thought spinning the
airplane to teach spin recovery to you would alarm you.  I promise you
for DAMNED CERTAIN that spin will alarm you.

...Once.  And after that, it won't matter any more.

....


[chuckle]

Yea, I've seen that too often with lots of newly minted PPL's, and the sad part is in the 
R172K I flew in, spinning was fun, recovery fairly simple and altitude loss minimal. Even 
worse, I have seen quite a few pilots that transitioned from a C152/172 to a Cherokee or 
(god forbid) an Arrow and run one tank dry, land dead stick, and then realize why... 
there's something seriously wrong with most CFI's these days, doing (just barely) what 
they need to get the student pilot to pass a checkride.

I was fortunate, having access to a C152, C172, a Cherokee and an Arrow II to fly, and 
having a retired CFI that enjoyed spin training. He would reach down and kill the fuel 
control on the C152, retrim the plane or screw with the mixture control or prop trim (on 
the Arrow) if/when I was not paying 100% attention.... the see how long it would take me 
to figure out and correct, all the things that are discouraged these days.

Before I stopped flying, we had a newly minted PPL take a C152 out, lost power @ 8000' and 
rather than run the checklist, rapidly descended to ~2500' to find a place to put 
down...he could have made it back to the airport, had he trimmed the plane out and had his 
wits about him.

BTW, I've always considered the lap belts in a Cherokee/Arrow to be a mechanism to simply 
transfer the bruises from your head to your upper thighs when flying through choppy air..;)


More information about the geeks mailing list