Posted for "JJ JOHNSON" <JJJOHNSON@ACCESSCOMM.CA>:

Bill, I can't speak for the writer of that email but, I believe  the reason
that 8000ft was lost was that the a/c entered a spin. Now I'm a Canadian who
by law took spin training for both my Private and Commercial, and I've never
taken more than a few hundred feet to recover from a full 2+ turn spin. Now
the concern that I'm getting from Lancair pilots it that they are a bit
nervous w/ spins. It would seem that it is possible for the a/c to enter a
spin and not be able to recover. To my knowledge, now someone else may be
able to correct me if I'm wrong, but the Lancairs have never been completely
spin tested. There could be great concerns w/ the orientation of the wing
and the stabilizers creating a situation where the stalled wing blanks the
tail in a spin and makes it impossible to recover. Now I'm not saying this
is the case, but I like to be a bit of a pessimist when it comes to test
flying a/c. Take the "Prove to me its good" attitude rather than the "I
assume its ok". There are many documented cases where a/c could not be
recovered from spins using the aerodynamic surfaces of the a/c[not speaking
of Lancair specifically here] and a spin chute had to be deployed.  If the
a/c is hard to recover from a spin.. then losing 8000ft in one.. isn't that
hard at all. I think that's the base from which people are a bit scared to
stall their a/c, in conjunction w/ the fact that most Lancairs have a
tendency to drop  a wing in a stall, leading to a spin.

Anyway, don't consider me an expert, I'm not, this is just the ramblings of
an over worked pilot.

Jarrett Johnson
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