I would really love to know if anyone without training besides reading instructions has ever successfully recovered from a spin (or any unusual attitude) in a real airplane!
The first time I spun an airplane it was by accident (OK, all of them were!): my instructor let it happen so I could learn and for the first few seconds it was like "what the fuck did I just do and how do I get out of it?" Even though I "logically" knew we were in a spin, the disorientation of G-forces, the screaming from the stall warning, and rapidly rising engine RPM made my lizard brain very slow to react. Never been happier to hear "I've got the airplane" coming from the right seat :-)
OTOH, after that first time, "unusual attitude" training became fun. Amazing what a tiny bit of experience does to the brain.
I'm not a pilot either, but I'm fairly sure it is the former. I believe "attitude" refers to the angle of the plan with respect to horizontal (so pointing up or down very steeply is an "unusual attitude").
Attitude. An "unusual attitude" refers to the aircraft being in a configuration that is not normal in controlled flight (e.g., flying inverted). I think that's close to the FAA definition.
Spin awareness is definitely weird at first, and I wholeheartedly agree that it's less scary after a bit of experience. Question: did you cover spin recovery? I was under the impression this was basically never done until CFI or CFII.
My instructor, an old F4 pilot, put us in a spin shortly after practicing stalls in our C152. First we did plain stalls, no big deal. Then uncoordinated stalls (which easily rolls the plane full over on its back). After that, he demonstrated a spin entry and recovery and had me do it. I probably had ~5h at that point. (But easily hundreds of hours in desktop simulators.)
On Dogfights, there was an F4 veteran from Vietnam who used to deliberately spin his F4 as a radical airbrake to force overshoots. The enemy pilot would overshoot, then he'd recover on their tails.
The spin I mentioned came from the first time practicing full-power departure stalls when I held the yoke back too long and the airplane rolled over. Did it a couple more times with the same result and when he tried it, it also happened so we concluded there was something wrong with the control surfaces and returned home.
It's not required for Private Pilot which I was training for at the time (early 90's), but my instructor planned to practice it. I lost interest in flying after about 45 hours, so we never got around to it. We did some unusual attitude recovery under the hood as part of my introduction to Instrument flight (the bit they do so if you accidentally fly into a cloud you can stay in control long enough to fly back out), and that was really a lot of fun.
In the US, you don't have to do any sort of spins all the way up until your CFI. All you have to know about (and be able to explain to your examiner) is "spin awareness" - essentially how it happens, what causes it, and how to get out of it.
I think it depends on the instructor, and the instructor's assessment of the student. My instructor put us in a spin and said "your plane"! The 2nd time she did that I knew exactly what to do.
I took a very hard-spinning glider out of a spin on the first try, using nothing but the theory books. Wasn't really a problem. The worst thing (and likely thing) that could happen is that you freak out.
The first time I spun an airplane it was by accident (OK, all of them were!): my instructor let it happen so I could learn and for the first few seconds it was like "what the fuck did I just do and how do I get out of it?" Even though I "logically" knew we were in a spin, the disorientation of G-forces, the screaming from the stall warning, and rapidly rising engine RPM made my lizard brain very slow to react. Never been happier to hear "I've got the airplane" coming from the right seat :-)
OTOH, after that first time, "unusual attitude" training became fun. Amazing what a tiny bit of experience does to the brain.