RE: knife edge spin?
I go straight up and stall the plane (reduce power to do this of course) and then when it starts coming down, I give full left or right aileron. Once it starts rolling, I jam both sticks to the upper corners. The main rule of thumb is that if you give it left aileron after the stall, when you jam the sticks to the corners, you want right aileron. Same goes for if you use right aileron after the stall.