ERJ135

Unless for CFI training......

Crashman

Or any kind of training. Try to do proper lazy 8s and accelerated stall recoveries without busting those 30-degree pitch and what, 50-degree bank regs. Or practice decent under-the-hood unusual-attitude recoveries. Or if you are intent on learning quick, crisp instinctive recovery from an inadvertent spin (no longer required or even taught, and that almost killed me years ago at 20 hrs. TT and 3rd solo trip to the practice area). The last time I got a rental checkout, the main thing the CFI asked me to do was rack it over and dive thru a [simulated] little bitty hole in a cloud layer. Fortunately my primary instructor had shown me how to do proper Navy attack dives. After .5 on the Hobbs meter total the airplane was mine. I don't strain utility-category planes and I don't do foolish aerobatics or maneuvers in excess of my capabilities or the airplane's, but primary training that assumes you'll always be fairly straight-and-level will kill you. There are many "pilots" flying today who have never experienced a spin, let alone recovered from one. Let's hope they don't see their first one turning base-to-final one windy day. The real joke here is wimpy unrealistic regs like these.

ERJ135

We had an unfortunate incident @ the flight school this past week in which an instructor and student were recovering from a stall and the elevator in the Cessna got stuck in the full forward position and they went into an inverted diving sprial and the CFI recovered @ 500ft using trim, rudder, and flaps. Almost ripped the flaps off. On top of it all the door opened on the way down and the CFI almost got ripped out of the plane, if not for his seatbelt being on. Pretty scary stuff. We had thought if it had been a student they would be dead because you never teach that kind manuever and they never will know what a spin is like unless it happens inadvertly like that. Come to find out the problem was a birds nest built way into the tail were it could not be seen on preflight.