After a slow start, I’ve finally gotten some flying under my belt for the semester (as a side note, my official plastic Commercial rating showed up last week!). I went up yesterday in the aerobatic Super Decathlon for my first-time-ever spin training and had an absolute blast. We did probably close to a dozen spins: incipient, fully developed, and a couple varieties of crossed-control situations.

The abruptness of the spin entry wasn’t something I’d anticipated – it borders on violent, and you suddenly feel inverted, pointing what looks like straight down, spinning rapidly. Recovery was just like training described; opposite rudder, neutral controls, throttle idle, all in one smooth series. Pulling out of the dive – and it’s a dive, none of this steep descent stuff – is upwards of three Gs.

Following the spins, my instructor took the Decathlon through some aerobatics that were one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in an airplane. I was floating out of my seat or hanging in the harness half the time, and we went up with parachutes, but I wasn’t particularly nervous and I didn’t get ill (unusual, apparently, for this particular pilot’s aerobatics).

My right-seat experiences today were substantially more benign than the spin flight. Still, my first time landing in the right seat was stressful, although the landings went just about like any other from the left seat. Toughest thing was handling the throttle with my left hand and the yoke with my right – old habits die hard.

For some cool footage of spins for the beginning or non-pilot, check out (my former multi instructor) Anthony Bottini’s UND aerocast episode on spin awareness.