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Piloting an aircraft is not an exceedingly difficult skill, but it is very unforgiving of any carelessness or mistake. If control is lost, the result can be a High-Speed Spiral Dive, more ominously called a Graveyard Spiral. In bad visibility, a pilot with no gyroscopic instruments, or unskilled in their use, has little hope of recovering control of a spiralling aircraft.
Most training concentrates on avoiding the spiral in the first place, but I would like to argue here for a different approach: that aerodynamic drag can stabilise the aircraft. I would like to explain why this behaviour is to be expected on physical and aerodynamic grounds, and then present a series of smart-phone videos showing that it really works, in different categories & models.
I would also like to touch on what can be done to introduce the concept to the aviation world.
