How To Survive Those Nasty Spins

By: Troy "Pancake" Whigham

An aircraft enters a stall when the airflow over the wings is insufficient to provide adequate lift. To restore lift to the airframe, the pilot must drop flaps accordingly and point the nose down (if the plane is pointing upwards) to gain speed.

If you enter into a spin situation you should immediately apply opposite rudder. For example, if the nose is spinning to the left you should apply right rudder. This will arrest the rate of your spin and, if done early enough, be sufficient for recovery. If the spin continues, maintain the right rudder, drop the flaps, and reduce the throttle. By reducing the throttle you will prevent engine torque from spinning the aircraft. Also, when an aircraft enters a spin the oil is drained from the engine by the centrifugal force of the aircraft's rotation (particularly nasty in radial-engined aircraft) and reducing the throttle will prevent serious engine damage. Like the old Pennzoil advertisement said, "make things tough on your engine and your engine will make things tough on you." Losing thrust with a bandit on your tail is a hard way to fly.

Sometimes you will encounter a situation where only one wing has stalled, typically resulting in your aircraft going nose-down and spinning rapidly. This is also called a tail-spin, and I haven't found a way to get out of it yet other than by dropping full flaps, cutting power, relaxing the stick, and praying.