The Tailspin

The Tailspin

Going into a tailspin in those days meant curtains.  No matter how hard you pulled back on the stick the nose of the plane wouldn't come up.  Spinning round, headed for a target of earth, the whine of death in the wing struts, instinct made you try to pull out of it that way, by force, and for years aviators spiraled down and crashed.

Who could have dreamed that the solution to this dreaded aeronautical problem was so simple?  Every student flier learns this nowadays:  You move the joystick in the direction of the spin and like a miracle the plane stops turning and you are in control again to pull the nose up out of the dive.

In panic we want to push the stick away from the spin, wrestle the plane out of it, but the trick is, as in everything, to go with the turning willingly, rather than fight, give in, go with it, and that way come out of your tailspin whole.

~ EDWARD FIELD ~

The key to expanded awareness is surrender.

~ William James ~