Stall/Spin Awareness Training

It's Quality Depends on Who's Giving It!

by Rich Stowell

WINNER - 1998 Sport Aerobatics Magazine Reader's Choice Award "Best Informational/Documentary"

As part of research for a new book, I was spurred on to survey schools listed in the International Aerobatic Club's (IAC's) annual "Directory of Aerobatic Schools." In recent years, stall/spin accidents have accounted for roughly 12% of general aviation accidents, but 25% of fatal accidents. What caught my attention, however, was that of these fatal stall/spins, 15-20% occurred during dual instructional flights -- with FAA-certified flight instructors on board!

None of these statistics, sad to say, are out of line considering the cursory treatment stalls and spins receive in the typical training environment. Nor are they out of line considering the minimal spin experience required of flight instructor applicants. In fact, researcher Patrick Veillette conducted a detailed stall/spin survey of flight schools, pilots, and instructors, as well as an examination of training literature ("Re-Examination of Stall/Spin Prevention Training," Transportation Research Record, No. 1379, Transportation Research Board, April 1993).

Dr. Veillette's database of survey respondents included 173 pilots chosen at random on the ramps of two Southern California general aviation airports; 43 flight schools from such geographically diverse areas as Mississippi/Tennessee, Southern California, and Utah; 513 civilian flight instructors; and 28 designated pilot examiners.

Training course outlines from nationally advertised flight instructor refresher clinics were obtained to evaluate the type of information presented as part of the re-certification process. Three of these courses were also monitored. In addition, over 250 books, magazine articles, technical papers, and research summaries pertaining to spins were reviewed. Based on this study, Dr. Veillette reached the following general conclusions, many of which will sound familiar to those specializing in stall/spin training:

"required texts for ground school courses at civilian flight schools devoted an average of 1.6 pages to the discussion of stall/spin.... Pilot operating handbooks for training aircraft contain no information about the spin characteristics of the aircraft.... Approximately 97% of surveyed pilots and 94% of surveyed flight instructors cited popular periodic literature as their main sources of information. Both pilots and flight instructors relied heavily upon their previous flight instructors for information.... the content of the popular literature (and several FAA publications) was very repetitive, cursory, poorly documented, of questionable accuracy, and contained very little new material. Completeness is also lacking in the popular literature....

"The study also found that the several excellent publications of the FAA which address the stall/spin phenomena are not well disseminated. Very few flight instructors were even aware of the Accident Prevention Program [now Aviation Safety Program] handouts, and fewer had copies for their personal libraries.... Several informative advisory circulars share equal fates....

"Most flight instructors rated their [stall/spin awareness] performance at a mean score of 5 (excellent). However, civilian flight instructors and designated pilot examiners demonstrated overall marginal performance levels in the following areas concerning stalls:

stall aerodynamics,
effects of control deflection on stall,
airfoil stall development,
planform effects on stall development,
spanwise flow effects,
stall warning signs...,
secondary effects of flight controls, and
roll control at high angles of attack.

"With respect to spins, civilian flight instructors and designated pilot examiners demonstrated overall unsatisfactory performance in the following areas:

pro- and anti-spin forces,
autorotational and stabilized spin motion,
effects of various variables on spins...,
spin phases, phase differences on recovery, and spin modes,
effects of the controls on spin motion and recovery,
and common student recovery errors and the effects on aircraft motion.

"The FAA modified stall/spin training regulations on April 15, 1991, and yet more than a year later, 97% of surveyed flight instructors, including all 35 survey participants who had been certified since the training amendment, were not aware of these changes to the regulations, nor were they aware of the FAA's excellent advisory circular [AC 61-67B] giving guidance on ground and flight training [in stalls and spins]....

"98% of the responding civilian flight instructors stated that their spin training consisted of no ground training and just two spins (one in each direction) before they were endorsed as being proficient to teach spins. 95% of the respondents did not receive training emphasizing conditions leading to inadvertent spins, spin aerodynamics, common student errors and the effects of the controls in a spin.

"Even more disturbing were findings that a professional standard has not been well established and promulgated in civilian flight instruction. The following facts about professional activities were determined from the survey:

3% attended advanced training clinics/seminars.
2.5% of flight instructors were involved in formal training to upgrade knowledge.
Less than 1% read advanced training materials.
97% relied on mass popular literature for information.
4% were aware of advances in flight sciences, research efforts and technology.
12% were active in professional associations and pilot groups.
13% maintained a limited professional library of books to reference.
94% were unaware of NTSB/NASA accident reviews for lessons learned from past accidents.

"It should also be noted that flight instructing is frequently used as a strategy for obtaining a more permanent position. Among flight instructor respondents, 97% claimed their goal is to upgrade to a commercial or corporate flight crewmember position as soon as practical.

"The study also found that not a single civilian flight instructor [respondent] had a pre-spin checklist to check numerous critical items prior to spin practice. 98% were largely unable to describe a set of procedures [or] steps they would undertake to determine if an individual aircraft were safe to spin. 94% did not understand the limitations of aircraft spin requirements in the certification process, and did not know where to obtain information on recommended spin entry techniques and spin motions of the aircraft."

Quite a powerful indictment of the overall poor quality of stall/spin training going on in general aviation. Yet in my years of involvement in the IAC, I've come to know and appreciate the quality and depth of stall/spin instruction available at many of the well-known aerobatic schools dedicated to such training. Furthermore, I could not recall a single stall/spin accident occurring during a dual spin training sortie conducted through any of these schools. One would think that if any group would be likely to contribute to the dual instructional stall/spin accident rate cited above, surely it would be those who routinely operate near critical angle of attack, those who specialize in spin and aerobatic training, right? Or could it be that collectively such schools know a thing or two about spinning and the professional conduct of such training?

To find out, I mailed a simple survey to two dozen of the more well-known aerobatic schools ("well-known" subjectively meant those schools repeatedly listed in the IAC Directory, those frequently advertising in "Sport Aerobatics" and other publications, those with printed course outlines and good word-of-mouth reputations, etc.). Twenty responses were received, representing the following cumulative experience:

1. The range of years engaged in formalized spin/aerobatic training: 5 to 29 years (average -- 15 years).

2. The estimated total number of hours of spin and aerobatic instruction given: over 135,000 hours.

3. The estimated number of dual instructional spins entered: a quarter of a million spins!

Put another way, this figure represents an impressive 11,000 vertical miles travelled while spinning!

All this exposure to stall/spins while in a dual training environment, and yet the total number of stall/spin accidents recorded during any phase of any instructional flight whose primary purpose was spin or aerobatic training? ZERO!

It seems that the well-established aerobatic schools have a good handle on how to conduct spin training safely. Common philosophical threads bind these schools together, as evidenced by some of the general comments attached to the surveys:

Our industry has committed an error in not teaching stalls and spins properly.

accidents that occur during instructional flights are occurring because a maneuver goes bad and the student and/or instructor have not had the training to recover.

instructor spin training is more than often very inadequate.

Instructors do not teach stalls properly because they are afraid to get into a spin by accident.

If all instructors were proficient in spins, they would not get into one by accident.

spin training safety depends on the instructors.

Students are very receptive to the [spin] training if it is at their pace.

[Spin training should be] done in well designed aircraft, properly maintained and taught by qualified instructor pilots who know what they are doing.

I attribute our safe record to the following: good equipment; good instructors; a good flight plan (includes preflight discussion); adherence to the flight plan; a thorough debrief of the flight.

Aerobatic schools and instructors have known intuitively that they've been providing a relatively safe, useful service to the aviation community, and the above numbers confirm this. So should these schools rest on their laurels? Absolutely not! The challenge ahead will always include vigorously striving to keep the stall/spin training environment as safe as possible for all involved while improving our understanding of stall/spin dynamics.

At the same time, we now have some rather insightful figures at our disposal. Let's use them to educate pilots, instructors, and the FAA about the inadequacies of general aviation stall/spin awareness training. Let's use them to educate others about the important gap filled by aerobatic schools and instructors dedicated to providing competent, quality spin training.

With the primary focus on aerobatics, the positive contribution made by professional aerobatic schools/instructors in other training areas is oftentimes overlooked. Based on the above survey results however, I hope more pilots will appreciate just what a potent resource good aerobatic schools can be for general aviation safety and education. And when you're ready for a complete stall/spin training package, I hope you'll seek out a reputable aerobatic school that specializes in high angle of attack flight. Be safe...

Note: Many thanks to Pat Veillette for sharing his research and to those aerobatic schools participating in Rich's survey.

Rich Stowell -- P.O. Box 190 -- Santa Paula, CA 93061-0190
phone 1-800-869-6627, 805-525-2037 -- e-mail rich@richstowell.com