So I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the spin recovery course offered at my school. The guy who teaches it is actually the same guy who did my checkride. He offers the instruction in a Super Decathlon and at the end of the course, students are given the opportunity to perform some light aerobatics - rolls and loops and such.
We spent about two hours on the ground and then, once airborne, started out with stalls, p-factor and g-force demonstrations, and then did ~10 spins of different varieties (1G, Beggs Mueller, Base-to-Final, etc). He let me do a full turn a couple times, because apparently I find it massively fun to spin round and round while staring straight down at the ground.
The good news - I never got even slightly nauseous and the g-forces didn't bother me... I just kept my stomach tight to keep bloodflow to my head and all was good. Most importantly - I learned A LOT. I really wish I had done this sooner!
The bad news - After over an hour of that, I was pretty tired and not feeling adventurous to try any more new crazy things... so no rolls or loops for me.
Lame, I know.
But, here's the thing - I
really want to try those things now. That's bad right?! Like the fact that I can't stop thinking about it means I probably have some kind of sickness?
My one big hangup - and I think a big part of why I opted out at the end, is that, save for my terrifying experience during underwater egress training, I realized at some point that I've actually never been inverted before... never ridden on an upside-down roller coaster, never even done a headstand... and the idea of being so was just something I couldn't get my head around.
I'm sure I can get past this inverted aversion and once I do, I'll have as much fun with loops and rolls as I did with spins. But how?! Any tips or tricks?
Other than that, though, I had a blast!