Yep Dean, I've had way more than my share of white knuckle and "time to launder the shorts" flites up here. Fortunately, my plane performs well and gets me out of situations I don't deserve to get out of. Happened just last week actually. Taking off from the ridge I was on in the pics above with a gusting 20mph crosswind I got blown off course and over the edge with a strong tailwind way before I was ready to lift off, ricocheted off a lower bench while sinking in the downdraft and careened over the next edge, still sinking and just along for the ride at that point and with just barely enough clearance to gain just enough airspeed to climb out without gathering some spruce tips with my tail wheel. That day could have ended much differently. I was pretty close to the "wall" on that one.
I would highly recommend the spin training Stan; it's not a particularly fun thing to do, but you should know what leads to them and what the entrance looks like and, most importanly, how to deal with it. It's only scary if you don't know how to deal with it, which is not at all difficult. You should know where "the wall" is and be able to recognize when you're almost there and how to react. Now, snap rolls are a different story! Too fun, and easy as hell. If I had Bruce's Grumman I'd spend as much time upside down as not!! I'd go everywhere in a cork screw flite pattern. Slow rolls in that plane would be a hoot.
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