About “stick forward”. This is another idea that has killed numerous pilots—especially Pitts pilots. Pushing well forward of nuetral in an inside (upright) spin will result in a crossover spin, where the spin has coverted from positive AOA to negative. In the Pitts, we are talking just a few inches of stick travel. If this happens coincident with opposite rudder, the victim enters a spin that reverses both direction and attitude. The first time this was demonstrated to me it scared me so badly that I simply refused to practice it on my own. Until…
Early in my relationship with my plane I start practicing snaps. I was just doing half snaps from upright to inverted and then slow-rolling back upright, then repeating. After 10 or so of these I decided to do an outside snap back to upright. Totally dumb. I had never done an outside snap nor had I ever done an outside spin on my own. So I pushed full forward (wrong!) and kicked. I buried the snap and entered the most confusing tumble my idiot self had experienced to that point. I tried to recover but whatever I was doing at that moment was pro-spin. I then said “goodbye”. I am not kidding. That’s what I did, calmly. Something eventually worked and I recovered with 800 feet to spare. I have the video but I still can’t watch it. After nearly killing myself, I do crossover spins from at least 7000 feet at the beginning of the season and at regular intervals thereafter. And don’t get me wrong. I flat LOVE spinning. And no plane ever made is as good at it as the little single-hole Pitts. But instructors who know only slightly more than their students are teaching them fatally wrong. Period.