My Student Pilot's Log
Checkride Prep

Flights 40-42

Flight 40: Mon, Mar 25. (1.2 / 59 / 21.1)

Today I went up with my CFI to work on some maneuvers and see where I need improvement for my checkride, since I've completed all the required tasks and logged enough hours in each category. Not surprisingly, I was pretty rusty on the things I hadn't worked on recently, like stalls and steep turns.

I did some hood work (unusual attitude recovery, in which he put the plane in a weird configuration, and I had to get it straight and level without being able to see outside), short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings, and an emergency drill.

Flight 41: Tues, Apr 2. (.7 / 59.7 / 21.8)

More checkride prep today. The 152 was out for maintenance, so I did my first solo flight in a 150, one I had not flown before. I did some ground reference maneuvers, but did not have time to do anything else since it was getting dark. (I had to wait for the 150 to come in, so I only got in about half the flying I had intended.)

Flight 42: Thurs, Apr 4: Out for a Spin. (1 / 60.7 / 22.8)

Today I flew another 150 I had not flown before. I did some more checkride prep (ground reference maneuvers and steep turns). I hadn't practiced stalls by myself, because I was uneasy about the possibility of an unintended spin.

I went up to about 2300 feet and set up the plane for slow flight. I tried to do a power-off stall and kept pulling back but never felt the stall. My airspeed was down to about 45 knots with the power on idle.

The next thing I knew, the plane was in a spin. The nose was pointed almost straight down, and all I could see in front of me was the ground coming toward me. I knew that the plane was designed to recover from spins by itself, so I let it. I did nothing but wait, and after either 1.5 or 2.5 revolutions (it was too fast to count), the plane leveled itself out.

By then the airspeed was up to 80 knots, and I was down to 1000 feet. I turned off the carb heat, put up the flaps, added power, and went back to the airport. I thought that was enough adventure for one day. (This picture is from an airshow, but this is what it would have looked like.)

Ironically, I had been thinking about asking my CFI to show me a spin, but after reading about them, thought I would be uncomfortable even riding through one. I called him to tell him what had happened. He took the news calmly, but I think it aged him a few years.

I was lucky that I had enough altitude, although pilots doing intentional spins would start 1000 or 2000 feet higher than I did. It was also good that the spin ended quickly, since sometimes there are four or five revolutions, which would have been the end of my flying career. From what I've read, about a quarter of aviation deaths are caused by stall/spin accidents.