I recently conquered my fear of spins in an airplane, and I must say that is the single most important fear that I have ever conquered. It was really holding me back!
As a student pilot, part of my training to get my certificate was practicing power on and power off stalls (they simulate engine failures and improper airspeed management on takeoff and landing respectively). The problem is that if those particular maneuvers aren't excecuted correctly, the airplane will get into a spin, and a recovery procedure is necessary to get out of it.
I spent a great deal of my training trying to avoid spins. They scared the hell out of me. Having the airplane spin and point itself straight at the ground while your airspeed builds quickly did not appeal to me. I would shake every time I heard the stall horn go off. Sure, I knew the procedure to recover, but I always hoped and prayed I would never have to use it. Spins are generally discussed with student pilots in a part 141 program, but they are generally not practiced.
One morning I found myself out on a solo flight. I was sent out by myself to practice what my instructor had taught me. I was due to complete my training within the next month or so, and I was confident I could complete all of the maneuvers quickly and get home in time for lunch.
I had climbed up to 4,500 feet for some added security during my maneuvers. I wanted to have plenty of room to recover should I screw something up. I'm glad I made that decision. I did my clearing turns and began to perform a power on stall. I throttled back to 1500 rpm and began tilting the nose up. As my airspeed dropped to 70kts, I pushed the power all the way in and I continued to pull the nose up. The airspeed continued to drop. The problem was that while I was watching my airspeed, I was not watching my turn-slip indicator. The airplane was unccordinated (not enough rudder to counter the yaw I was experiencing), and I was on the second stall horn. As the third and final, "Hey you! You're gonna stall now!" horn went off, I looked over and saw my turn turn-slip indicator. The ball was WAY over to the left. I knew at that instant what was going to happen.
All I remember thinking was, "Well, this is it. I've finally done it... I've gotten myself into a spin."
The airplane stalled, and as the nose came down it pitched slightly up again and rolled to the right. Down I went. All I remember was seeing green and brown in front of me; colors blending as they spiraled across my windscreen. Fortunately, I remembered the procedure for recovering, and I managed to get myself out of the spin and back into level flight fairly quickly. I was really shaken up. I was proud of myself for recovering successfully, but damn... I was scared stiff. I had never experienced anything like that before, and it all happened so fast. I completed my lesson and headed home.
For the next few weeks, I simply could not perform power on stalls. Literally, I could not make myself stall the airplane. My feet would shake on the rudder pedals, my palms would sweat, and my would subconsciously force the nose down to gain the vital airspeed I needed for straight and level flight. My isntructor was wondernig what was going on. He noted that I had mastered that same maneuver a few weeks prior, and he wasn't sure why I was freezing all of the sudden. When I told him what happened, he made a note of it, congratulated me on recovering, and we moved on.
A few days later, I sat down with my instructor and said, "I want to get through this program, and I need to get past this fear. The only way to do that is for you to demonstrate some spins and recovery for me." With that, we headed back out into our practice area where I would experience my first intentional spins.
My instructor didn't give me much of a choice. He insisted that performing some spins would cure me of my fear of them. I hesitantly agreed. As he pulled the airplane up into a power on stall, he mashed the rudder to the left as the airplane stalled, and down we went; spiraling towards the earth. He aggrivated the spin with the rudder. We spun faster and faster and I could feel myself being pulled out from the airplane's center of gravity and sticking to the door next to me. As the airspeed built up, my instructor recovered and pulled the Gs necessary to return to straight and level flight. I felt about double my weight as we pulled up and the horizone came back into view. We repeated this maneuver about four more times that day, and each and every time we recovered safely.
Since then, I have no fear of spins. I can perform power on and power off stalls without the fear of getting into trouble. I now know that if I find myself in that situation again, I can get out of it just about every time.
I have since passed my Private Pilot check ride and earned my pilot's certificate. It's something I could never have done had I not gotten over that fear. It took a lot of work on my part to get past my own fear of falling to finally realize that there really wasn't anything to fear at all.
For those unfamiliar with a spin:
They can be absolutely terrifying if you are not prepared for them, and they can be deadly if a pilot does not know how to get out of them. Fortunately, I received some awesome training and a swift kick in the rear!
