It’s one of the worst nightmares of every pilot.
Somehow, inadvertently, you’ve stalled the airplane to the point where it has no forward airspeed to keep it up in the air and it drops like a rock. And even worse - you’ve stalled one wing more than the other, so not only does it drop, but it tumbles and spins over and over as you’re tossed around like a tumbleweed in a tornado.
First and foremost, any emergency training teaches you to keep calm in an emergency. But in a situation where you’re on a helpless, unwanted and rather extreme roller-coaster, you have to force yourself to keep your head more than usual, and remember that there is a set process to get out of this. You can get out of this alive and unharmed.
The secret to getting out of a spin is a little mnemonic-acronym called ‘PARE.’ PARE is one of the foremost acronyms in the minds of pilots of small planes. The aviation industry and pilots in general love acronyms - and indeed use a lot of them. But this one is especially significant because it’s the process for getting out of a spin. Let’s break it down:
P: Power idle. Close the throttle fully.
A: Ailerons neutral. The ailerons on an airplane control the amount of bank used in a turn. They must be neutral - the yoke must not be tilted left or right
R: Rudder hard opposite. In an airplane, the rudders, which you use to point the nose, are usually controlled with pedals at your feet. Push the rudder hard in the opposite direction of the spin. If you’re spinning to the left, use hard right rudder. This will break the spin - but you still have to recover your airspeed.
E: Elevators forward. The elevators control your pitch - your nose-up and nose-down motion. You push the yoke forward to break the stall and recover your airspeed. As your airspeed increases, gently ease the elevators back for a straight-and-level flight.
When you feel that you’re entering a downward spiral in life - that is, when nothing seems to be going right and your thoughts only make things worse, you can try and use the PARE acronym to break that spiral and arrest the drop.
Set your power to idle - stop driving your thoughts hard and fast so you can think better. Then get your ailerons to neutral - balance your thoughts out, so you can weigh the problem correctly and find out why and which direction your downward spiral is sending you. Once you’ve done that, apply hard opposite rudder - in this case, that means to try and orient or deflect your thoughts in exactly opposite direction - you’ll soon find your way out of that spiral. And then at last, by using a forward elevator, dive headfirst into your way out and ultimately arrive at a workable path to continue onward.
Spins and spirals feel like the worst things to ever happen. But once your ‘spin recovery procedure’ becomes second nature, you’ll soon find it easier and easier to get out of those moments. And soon, you’ll be a master at riding the roller coaster of life like a pro, and emerging unscathed.