Detailed and standardised training instructions for flight academies

Exercise 11 “Spin avoidance”, as per JAR-FCL 1, is not flown in a standardised manner at the different flight academies or clubs that provide flight training. Some flight academies have even altogether eliminated the exercise from their PPL syllabi. The elemental part in this exercise is teaching “recovery at the incipient spin stage”. Neither the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) nor the Finnish Transport Safety Agency provide more detailed content as regards this training. Clear-cut guidelines would harmonise flight training and improve its quality.

Safety Investigation Authority Finland recommends that the Finnish Transport Safety Agency regulate and require flight training organisations to prepare detailed and standardised training instructions on exercises that involve stalls, stalls with wing drop, spin avoidance, incipient spins, spirals and unusual flight attitudes. The guidelines should comment on, among other things, the manner in which each manoeuvre should be initiated, proper recovery techniques and subsequent actions should the recovery fail as well as on initial and minimum recovery altitudes.

Exercise 11 “Spin avoidance”, as per JAR-FCL 1, is not flown in a standardised manner at the different flight academies or clubs that provide flight training. Some flight academies have even altogether eliminated the exercise from their PPL syllabi. The elemental part in this exercise is teaching “recovery at the incipient spin stage”. Neither the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) nor the Finnish Transport Safety Agency provide more detailed content as regards this training. Clear-cut guidelines would harmonise flight training and improve its quality.