When I am in the company of my more experienced friends I like to keep my
tongue between my teeth and listen.  God gave us two ears and one mouth and
the premise was we should listen twice as much as we talk.

However in this case I am moved to  print on the subject of stalls. I have
instructed on both stalls and spins and in my opinion they are both part of
flying albeit sometimes unwittingly.  In Canada we teach spin recovery and
therefore we have to teach how to get our docile trainers to spin.  It makes
a little nonsense of the need to teach spin recovery but I think we are all
the the better pilots for being able to recognize spin entry and then being
able to  recover.

In the first instance,  if our 360's are so lethal as to preclude a stall
then my plane will be sold before I fly it.  I think that is not the case
but I would dearly love to hear from pilots who can talk to the experience
of stalling the a/c and provide some objective facts.

What about spins?  I believe that the a/c has not been tested by the factory
for spin recovery.  Who has spun the a/c and what can be said about it?
Will the factory comment?

People who want to avoid the issue and never experience a fully developed
stall are asking to be bitten the first time a pitot is blocked by ice or
whatever.  If you cannot recover from a stall in the 360 then you should not
be flying it.  Worse than that if you cannot recognize the instant before
the stall then  stick to your bicycle for transportation.  There, I have
said it and put the cat amongst the pigeons.

I intend to work my aircraft up to and through a fully developed stall.  I
want to know what slow, slow flight feels like in case I need to use it one
day. I want to operate behind the curve for better understanding of the
handling.  Yes I do intend to have plenty of space under me and yes I do
intend to keep that ball in the middle.

We have put a lot of time and effort into beating throttle positions into
line.  Personally I could care less where it is as long as it remains
connected to the engine.  As an ex Limey I can drive on either side of the
road, left hand drive, right hand drive.  I have flown tail draggers with
sticks and left or right throttles and more conventional aircraft with yokes
and right hand throttles, never missed a beat, nobody told me it was
diificult, so it wasn't.

 Can we try and bring some experienced pilots, who can talk of what they
know, to the far more important issue of 360 stalls and spins?  Incidentally
although as an ex instructor I am the survivor of many self induced spins, I
do not consider myself an expert.  Let's hear from you.

Ian Crowe