This February 2009 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Aircraft: Cessna 172. Injuries: None. Location: Reidsville, Ga. Aircraft damage: Substantial.
What reportedly happened: The pilot was practicing power-off stalls in the landing configuration. The airplane was configured with 30° of flaps when it stalled. The pilot attempted to recover by adding full power and leveling the nose. The airplane went sideways and entered a spin. The pilot did not immediately reduce power, and the airplane’s speed increased as it descended. Upon recovering from the spin, the airspeed was over 120 knots and the flaps were still deployed. Maximum flaps extended speed for the Cessna 172 is 85 knots. As the pilot retracted the flaps he heard a creaking noise. After landing it was determined that the wings and flaps were damaged.
Probable cause: The failure to maintain control of the airplane during an attempted recovery from a stall/spin.
For more information: NTSB.gov
Another “really glaring example” of exceedingly poor flight instruction!
This type of incident is so uncalled for, so preventable with just a little fundamental instruction. From what is said in the report the pilot does not know, along with many other pilots is if the nose cannot turn or yaw the airplane can not spin. It is a good bet he didn’t even touch the rudder.
This fundamental skill is a problem that is ramp-id among students, Military, Airline, CFI’s and Professional Pilots yet so easy to cure.
It is the FAA that has been the perpetrator of this problem with the policies, methods and standards of how to train Pilots. It is a shame that the inadvertent stall/ spin is still number one killer outside of weather accidents with todays aircraft technology and all the ways we have to communicate the knowledge to eliminate the problem.