[Glider]

I admit to wondering what all the fuss is about. The vast majority of my flying experience has been in gliders so what I say comes with that caviet.

Any high speed stall is an exciting event even in a glider. By definition things happen quickly and often violently, so no suprise there.

Where the pilots notes warn about rough conditions causing the pilot to make control movements that can impact flight, its common sense and often happens. It could be that my experience is different here as what a powered plane calls turbulance is what we call potential lift and have more experience flying in those conditions. This warning would apply to any small aircraft, be it a Spitfire, 109, Piper Cub or glider.

Flying on the edge of a stall using the stall warning to stay close to the maximum performance is again a good thing, glider pilots often fly on the edge and in one case when I lost my instruments whle thermalling in a cloud with driving rain, had a good deal to do with my safe exit.
Edit - had my glider had automatic front edge slats like the 109, I may well have had to bail out, never thought of that before.


A violent spin if you push past the boundary is again nothing to worry about, it happens and you are trained not to go past the edge. I have seen international standard pilots make this mistake and spin out of a stack. You soon recognise the warning signs.

A couple of general observations,
a) the best fighters are by design borderline unstable.
b) Nearly all the reports I have seen from German pilots who flew captured Spifires said that they were easier to fly than the 109. This again supported by the Jugoslav airforce who had both Hurricanes and 109E's and used the Hurricane as a lead in to the 109 because of accidents. The RAF didn't use Hurricanes as a lead in to the Spitfire.