Hat tip to Scott Spangler of the JetWhine blog for mentioning this cool aviation marketing video about the Icon Aircraft A5 that’s also a good primer on spins. The reason the video grabbed Scott’s attention and also should grab yours as well is that it gives a concise demonstration about what makes an aircraft stall without viewers needing a degree in aeronautical engineering to understand what they are talking about. Specifically, the video includes the side-by-side results of stalling an A5 verses a Cessna 150 as well as comparing the A5’s stall descent rate with a skydiver under canopy.
Of course, the video is intended to help market the Icon Aircraft A5 as a light-sport aircraft alternative to Cessna and other general aviation aircraft used as training aircraft. By turning it educational about stalls without overwhelming users with technical jargon, the video is also a very clever piece of aviation marketing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsQcfzNWJWc&w=480]
That's a bit naughty of them! The Cessna 150 is a training aircraft so surely it's designed to stall/spin in a predicable manner so that trainee pilots learn recovery techniques. It looks dramatic but pilots need to learn that making full aft stick, full right rudder inputs at the stall, will make most aircraft do the same. Many aircraft would be harder than the Cessna to recover.
It would be interesting to see which aircraft was easier to recover from something caused by turbulence, flap in-balance or something else … I'd rather be in a plane where full right rudder actually makes something happen.