I’m almost a CFI, the road has been long, tedious, tougher then I could have ever imagined, with many highs and many lows and it’s been a lot of fun too! It feels great to almost reach one of my goals. Now that I’m waiting on my CFI checkride I can look back at my training and at the highlights; which brings me to my spin training with Chris Kirk. I learned a lot, had a blast and feel like a safer, more competent pilot. Here’s why.
Besides being an awesome dude, retired firefighter and a veteran aerobatic pilot Chris is also a proficient flight instructor. Proficient flight instructors are my favorite because they are efficient and effective, read more about why that is important to me here.
“You never know, this knowledge and experience might save your life one day.”
Chris in front of his hangar
My CFI classmates and I started our ground for our spin endorsement back in January, then we decided that we would do the flying part after we wrapped up our CFI flying. Read more about that here.
For a whole hour Chris spoke passionately about what he loves to do; aerobatics. We learned about God 1 and God 2; No, not Zeus and Poseidon but the turn coordinator and the airspeed indicator. And why they are so important when flying, especially with the road we are taking as flight instructors. We marveled at the grace of Bob Hoover, who was one of the most famous test pilots in the world. But most importantly of all, we got into slips and skids, looked at videos of some ‘unfortunate’ pilots who didn’t keep an eye on God1, airspeed and God2, the turncoordinator and got into some serious trouble.
One of the videos we checked and discussed about
The flying portion was a lot of fun, with the focus being on recovering from a spin. After taking-off we flew towards the east where we did all the maneuvers above the beautiful blue waters of Miami. It was so much fun, I feel confident that I know what to do If I ever find myself in a spin with one of my students. Besides that I had a BLAST flying Chris’s Citabria. It’s just a whole new level of flying, window open, small plane, responds really quick too. It really feels different compared to a Cessna or Piper. Be sure to listen and take note of everything Chris is telling you to do. With one maneuver I didn’t put enough input to get out of it, about a second later I felt Chris’s abrupt input on the controls and heard his voice cracking loudly through my headset “That will get you killed!”.
The beautiful cockpit of the Citabria
In my opinion everybody should get a spin endorsement, if you get your private pilots license in Canada or Europe getting a spin endorsement is still part of the training. And you never know, this knowledge and experience might save your life one day, right? Besides that it is a blast to do!
Remember, stay safe up there and grease those landings!
GRQ
Want to get your spin endorsement with Chris Kirk? You can reach him at: 305-335-6523
