By: Peter O'Brien
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I first flew a Tomahawk in '79, the version without inboard flow strips, the stall/spin characteristics were totally predictable, and demonstrated in no uncertain terms, as the literature of the time described it "the sins visited upon the slow of foot", and if one was foolish to ignore the sound of empty beer cans rattling in the tail just prior to the stall, the PA 38 would roll over on her back and spin with a marked nose down attitude, recovery was release back pressure, and recover from the ensuring spiral.

However, since the fitting of inboard flow strips the spin is relatively flat and requires at times full forward pole, THEN full opposite rudder to get out of trouble. We operate 3 Trauma Hawks, in our fleet and consider then to be an excellent trainer, and have logged some 27,000 accident free training hours, the only prang was a student doing PFL and got a bit low during recovery and hit a fence, he was OK.

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