Spin ground training

While we couldn't go flying last Saturday, we did knock out the ground portion of the spin lesson. I'm excited for this flight, a self-contained lesson in my instructor's aerobatic syllabus that he also gives to prospective CFIs and others seeking spin training. Even after reading Sammy Mason's Stalls, Spins, and Safety, the briefing was enlightening. I had never considered why aileron control reversal occurred, but it was clear after he pointed it out on the lift vs. angle of attack curve: the downward aileron increases the wing's angle of attack, causing it to produce less lift in the stalled regime rather than more.

I'm looking forward to performing dutch rolls at a high angle of attack, falling leaf stalls, stalls while slipping and skidding, spin entries, incipient spins, fully developed spins, and an introduction to competition spins if time allows. He said that we'll try the falling leaf with some power on to deepen the stall, which makes the airplane unstable enough that it could easily roll to knife-edge. It will be interesting!