Most examiners with whom I have discussed this subject only occasionally test applicants' spin knowledge in great depth. One reason is to ensure that the local flight training community continues to teach the spin and its associated aerodynamics, while allowing flexibility to test in depth in other areas and keeping testing times reasonable. Therefore, if your friend has just returned from examiner X and reports that his spin questions were few, you may need to answer in more detail when your turn comes. Be prepared. Remember that you are preparing for a lifetime of flying-and not just for the checkride.
Those who know why spins occur and the proper techniques to prevent and recover from spins have less anxiety about them. Relaxed pilots make for relaxed passengers and safer, more joyful flights. Sadly, lack of knowledge is one cause of unintentional spins. Pilots should respect, but not fear, spins. What they need to fear are the consequences of aerodynamic impropriety. You can bet that your examiner will watch vigilantly for signs of pilot technique that could lead to an unintentional stall. He or she will also listen carefully during oral testing for hints that your knowledge might be lacking.
Examiners are especially sensitive to the tendency to over-simplify spins. Spinning involves complex aerodynamics, with possibly hundreds of contributing factors. Your examiner does not expect you to be an aerodynamicist, but simply to recognize the critical elements of spins in general and your airplane's characteristics in particular.
Some flight instructors introduce incipient-spin recognition and recovery to their students. Others keep spins a strictly academic exercise. With so much to learn, some private pilot applicants do not burden their minds with much more than how to recover and whether or not the aircraft is approved for spins. (Incidentally, you are not exempt from knowing how to recover from a spin if your airplane is placarded against intentional spins.) You should be able to determine if the spin maneuver is approved in any airplane that you fly.
Most spin discussions in preparation for the checkride assume an unintentional spin. Since there are no intentional spins on a private pilot checkride, this seems valid. But the FAA's Flight Training Handbook - just rewritten, by the way - notes that pilots sometimes ignore spin restrictions. Flight instructors sometimes justify performing spins in airplanes that are not rated for them by rationalizing that the spin restriction resulted from a technicality in the airworthiness standards. Do not expect your examiner to ask this, but it is good for you to know that certification in the Normal category requires only that an airplane recover from a one-turn spin. A 360-degree turn does not make a stabilized spin. Unless the engineering test pilots went far beyond certification requirements, a pilot naively enjoying such excitement may find recovery difficult or impossible. Even older airplanes that once were certified in the Utility category may no longer be capable of safely performing spins due to modifications by previous owners.
Recovery from incipient spins in some airplanes might be as simple as relaxing the rudder and elevator deflections, but this often depends on aircraft loading, configuration, power-setting, and more. Unless the manufacturer's recommendation is to simply relax the flight controls, few examiners are likely to accept this as a viable procedure. Your examiner still wants you to know the manufacturer's recommendations and understand that following them in a timely, brisk, positive manner is paramount. Timely? The spin recovery technique must live firmly in your mind, because an unexpected spin as you turn from base to final gives you no time to think about what to do. Your passengers deserve nothing less.
What if neither your checklist nor the airplane flight manual shows a spin recovery technique? The Flight Training Handbook gives a thorough and thought-provoking discussion. Power reduction to idle as the first action should be deeply ingrained by the time you take your checkride. Second, your examiner wants to know that you will apply full opposite rudder followed by brisk, positive forward pressure on the stick (or yoke) with the ailerons in the neutral position. The airplane may not respond immediately, but when the rotation stops, the pilot's patience is rewarded and it's time to neutralize the rudder and apply gentle back pressure to resume level flight.
Your examiner may be satisfied with this sort of answer, or he may ask what happens if your control inputs are not brisk, but slow and cautious. You should know that in some cases, such movements can stabilize the spin and destroy the airplane's ability to recover, even if the flight controls are moved fully opposite to the spin.
A more common question is why, after the spinning stops, back pressure to raise the nose is not applied briskly. You should know that while forceful elevator movement to break the stall is essential, forceful back pressure afterward can cause a secondary stall and another spin or even overstress the airframe.
While the PTS mandates only knowledge-based testing in spins, your examiner will monitor your spin awareness during stalls and slow flight. Practicing stalls helps you to develop an instinctive, prompt reaction in recognizing an approaching spin. Failure to take immediate corrective action any time it becomes apparent that your airplane is nearing spin conditions is disqualifying. Your examiner will pay particular attention to how you relate ailerons to the rudder during slow flight and stalls. In the pre-PTS days of long ago, checkrides demanded that applicants recover from stalls using rudder only; ailerons remained neutral. Times and airplanes have changed. Modern airplanes, with their aerodynamic refinements, have better elevator and aileron effectiveness at low airspeeds, resulting in a generation of pilots whose rudder awareness is far removed from that of their taildragging forefathers. Examiners sometimes see applicants invite the spin during stalls or slow flight by ignoring rudder use. Pilots flying through stall or slow flight without using the rudder tend to fight for control, sometimes slamming the ailerons from stop to stop. Such a mishandled airplane is not in control, and a spin could be the result. When this happens, examiners issue a disapproval not only for the stall or slow flight, but for spin awareness as well.
This situation is serious enough that the FAA insists that those flight instructor applicants who fail stalls on their CFI checkrides must be tested in spin entry and recovery on the subsequent retesting. Spin awareness should be a major concern to the en-tire aviation community. It certainly is to examiners.
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