Chuck, for a "conventional" upright spin you want to start with plenty of altitude and then with the plane staright and level, bring the power to idle and as the speed bleeds off, gradually bring the nose up to keep the plane from loosing altitude. Eventually the plane should stall (quit flying) as you come back to the stop with full up elevator. With most planes, as you continue to hold full up elevator, if you also add full rudder (either direction, but you will find that some planes spin better one direction of the other...just experiment to see), and the plane should enter a spin where it looses altitude rapidly while rotating rapidly in the direction of the rudder you input. Many times you may find that it is also necessary to add aileron in the same direction of the rudder to produce an even tighter spin (the aileron input will help keep one half of the wing stalled...which must happen to keep the plane in a spin). Sometimes a little added throttle may increase the rate of rotation in the spin, but in other cases, increased throttle may actually pull the plane out of the spin into a "spiral dive". I should note here that some planes (especially many "stable" trainers) really won't spin well. You will just have to try your and see.

Anyway, once the plane is in a spin, MOST will recover simply by releasing all controls and allowing them to return to neutral (elevator, rudder, and ailerons), the throttle should also be returned to idle. At this point the plane should recover (stop rotating) and just drop it's nose until it regains flight speed. At that point, the nose can gently be raise dback up to level as the throttle is slowly advanced back to cruise setting. Hoever, if the plane continues to spin after all controls are neutralized, you need to stay calm and try applying opposite rudder (from the direction you input to start the spin), and possibly some down elevator...both just until the rotations stop. The hardest part is to relax and wait a second or two after the rotations stop (to allow the plane to build up flying speed again) before GENTLY applying up elevator to pull the plane out of it's dive. Many planes will start to spin AGAIN if the panicked pilot yanks too much up elevator too soon after starting the spin recovery.

Hope that helps...

Lee