Cessna 150 Fully Developed Spin - Exterior View - Spin Training

Cessna 150 Fully Developed Spin - Exterior View
Spin training in a Cessna 150

[kalubafak]

My CFI was a FAA flight examiner. He taught me how to enter and recover from spins. I practiced them often during training. Builds confidence.

[ges]

Back in the early 90's, when I was doing my private pilots certificate, I remember being concerned with power on and off stalls and how the wing would often dip slightly. I asked my instructor if he would put me though some spin training, which he agreed. We went out, and performed spins in both directions, and I remember the first spin was breathtaking in how you roll upside down. If you had never been through the training, it would have been terrifying the first, and perhaps the last time it happened. So glad I did that training. Highly recommended for any of you pilots.

[pauldiatlovich]

It was the best part of my training. After being comfortable in a spin, it made me a better pilot.

[DavidJones-zmrh]

My CFI had a 150 Aerobat and gave me spin training. Thanks Ed. He taught me how to avoid spins..

[gastankbassgtb]

Fantastic! It takes me back to my days of instructing. I'd offer to demonstrate to my students, and although not required, I thought it was very valuable. We had 152's, and you had to time that thing just right to get it to go, and if you'd just release the controls, it would mostly recover. Ah, the good ol'

[driftz]

Here in Canada, one of the mandatory exercises you are graded on for the commercial license flight test is your ability to enter and recover from a spin. The best way I’ve been taught to enter a spin in a 172 is to bump the power ever so slightly when the stall horn gets loud, then add back pressure followed by full left rudder just before the stall. Works everytime

[Starsnu]

Great video. I sure wish I had this video to show my students back in my CFI days. I never let them solo without giving them spin training first. Nice job!

[ThePaulv]

I know 2 instructors that were almost killed doing a fully feveloped spin in an 152 Aerobat.
What they said happened was it developed this flat spin component that they couldn't get out of. What they did was open the doors as much as they could and rocked back and forward in their seats while holding the top of the instrument panel. They ended up recovering with still 1500' to spare.
The CFI from that point on banned intentionally inducing a fully developed spin in this plane.
The way this one flattened at the end reminded me of that incident.

[craigpennington]

Loved flying the 150s. A fantastic aircraft. Great example here. Spins can make you loose alt. in a hurry. Each type aircraft behave differently but correct it immediately if in one. Thanks for posting. A great learning tool.

[jamesnelson]

Spins are only scary the first time, and can be very disorienting if you havent ecperienced them before. In my early flight training, I was sent up with a new, young instructor who haf just been hired. We were flying a then new 1965 C150, which had a straight tail (more effective than the later swept tail) and manual flaps. During airwork, we had climbed to 6500 feet (over 5000' AGL) and wete flying west into strong einds aloft. The instructor adked me to demonstrate slow flight, then asked me to do a full power stall with full flaps (40 degree flaps). I added full throttle and raised the nose to stall the airplane. As I was just on the edge of the stall, with tbe stall warning horn squealing and significant burble on the controls, I ran out of right rudder, with my foot on the floor, so I stopped adding back pressure. The instructor asked why I stopped incfreasing the angle of attack, and I told him I was out of right rudder. He said "stall it anyway, so I did. Wow, with those ban door flsps out blanking airflow over the rudder, the snap over the top was so sudden and violent it could hardly bee seen ad we rolled through inverted, and the spin was pretty tight and rapid immediately. It really wound up after a turn or two! It looked like we wete going straight down with the earth rapidly rotating beneath us and coming up fast. I knew the elements of spin recovery and immediately applied them, to no effect. I deduced that the flaps wete interfering with airflow over the rudder, and began to sslowly raise them. Once they were retracted, it took a few more turns with full opposite rudder yto stop the rotation, and the already steep nose down attitude, combined with forward yoke to regain lift, and the back pressure required to pull out before impacting tge ground, resulted in a rather high G pullout. I dont know how many turns were made during that spin, but it was a lot! During the spin, I looked over at the instructor several times, and he was frozen in fear, with eyes the size of saucers and no color in his complexion. Fortunately, we were over a low swampy area. There were grass stains on the belly and sone reeds in the landing gear when we landed, which I did immediately after recovering and heading for home base. Thank goodness for having flown with my Dad (Navsl Aviation WWII) and had numerous discussions with him. Intetestingly, after landing, one of the owners of the FBO asked me in to his office and adkef me how the lesson went. The other owner debriefed the new instructor at the same time. I was thruthful and described the flight. That was that instructor's first and last flight for them. I certaunly learned why the airplabe was placarded against slips with full flaps, as a slip can easily turn into a skid, and you can't recover from an inadvertent spin witjout full rudder authority.

[ElsinoreRacer]

Learned in 150's and flying for 40 years and STILL the most surprising behavior (vs expectations) of any aircraft is the 150's 1st two turns of a departure stall-to-spin. Nose high, full power, fullback yoke and a bit of bank.. BAM. The abrupt drop you expect, the rotation you expect, but the roll inverted WITH the it's a grabber. 1st time, I remember thinking that if we were planning on being inverted, you would think I would know in advance. As I recall, it also stabilizes fairly nose low, so when you get sorted you best be pulling soon or you over-speed. To this day, I feel that the zone between not over-stressing on pullout and over-speeding is pretty narrow. All this to a soundtrack of airframe airspeed sounds you have never heard before.

[TBolt]

Just saw this video on 3 Minutes of Aviation, or some compilation channel like that. It's a great demonstration -- one of my favorite aviation videos of the year. 👍

[duartesimoes]

I soloed in one of these, flew them for years and still this video scared me to death! I never imagined that this tame little aircraft could plummet like that! 😱
In the cockpit, you have no notion...

[EamonnSeoigh]

I learned in a Citabria, could spin it and Cessnas to the left and the right. Being proficient in spin recovery was a confidence builder to really explore an airplane’s performance envelope.

[thenorthernwill]

Exceptional training value here. Observing what your ac is doing from this point of view offers an entirely new perspective.

[TreDeuce-qwkv]

Been there. Done that first in a 152. My step grandfather an ex bush pilot told me to find and instructor who would give me Spin Training before I soloed. I soloed so quickly that part of my training didn't happen. I was out practicing minimum controllable airspeed when the plane snapped into a spin. Luckily I was at 3, 500-ft. as I recovered at near tree level after trying everything, mostly wrong. That night I was scheduled for my first night FLT training and I told my instructor what had happened so he gave me spin training at night. Later I did spins with my Cessna 150G and a 47' AC Champ just for the thrill of it. When the owner of the FLT school found out my instructor gave me spin training, he wasn't very happy about it and had a discussion with my instructor that was private.

[paulmartos]

My first instructor demonstrated a 3-turn spin in a 150 but in years of further training no one else was willing to do so. Months later a student entered a classic stall-spin after overshooting a turn toward the runway -- aka "short final" on a landing approach. The instructor caught the plane after 1 turn and barely got it on the runway safely.

Spin training used to be standard for all pilots but no longer.

[jtocwru]

Got my ASEL PPL in 2003, and did all of my flight training in C-172s. I have never been in a spin, and after watching this video, I am pretty sure I'd never fly again if I ever did get into a spin. It looks terrifying, and I don't have faith in the 50-year-old aluminum wing spars in the airplanes that I rent. Wings are strong, but they have their limits.

[TK-mfin]

I’ll never forget my first spin - typical cross control while doing slow flight. Also training in a 150 and had about 6 hours training. Scared me to death lol. My instructor recovered it very quickly and explained why it occurred and once I had a few more hours under my belt, I convinced him to let me get into and out of spins almost every practice and even while doing cross country to break up the monotony. I highly recommend practicing spins because learning how to get into one helps you avoid getting into one in the first place. I also recommend renting a properly equipped 150 and go out and learn to do loops - not for training purposes but because it’s loads of fun and those 150s loop really nicely!

[tompera]

I earned my PPL at DVT in Phoenix in the late 90’s. My second lesson with the hard ass CFI was slow flight and he kept yelling “more rudder”. We entered a spin and I said “Oh S**t “ as I was hanging in the harness spinning straight for earth. His response (very calmly) : “No, not oh s**t, it’s power idle, ailerons neutral, opposite rudder and push yoke forward”. Years later I told the story to the owner of the flight school and he was horrified. The experience, and additional lessons after I passed my check ride taught me some great stick and rudder control. Wouldn’t trade that 2nd flight for anything. 🛫🛫🛫