Scudrunners

Well understood by most here but I did not see it answered so ...

A skid will normally reward your poor skill by rotating you upside down in the direction of the rudder (same direction you are banked).
A slip will normally reward your poor skill by rotating you upside down in the direction of the rudder (opposite the bank), i.e. right side up before taking you upside down. 

So its much safer to slip because you get a bit of warning before going on your back.

Here is a little demonstration. I'm turning about 30 degrees or so at pretty much my 1G stall speed but I'm holding a fair amount of rudder into the turn, i.e. skidding through the turn. I then pull a bit on the stick and presto .. a pretty little snap takes me from a 30 degree, to 60, to 90, to 180 etc. If I had done this in a slip it would have gone from 30 degrees to 0, to -30, -60, -90, 180. So I'd have more time.

The Pitts goes around fast so the spin stays mostly horizontal for the first turn but a lower performance plane will have time to get the nose down into a normal vertical spin attitude especially if you are nose low and skidding when it happens.

That looked a bit like the gentlest snap roll in the world to me.

Colonel Sanders wrote: That looked a bit like the gentlest snap roll in the world to me.

Really just wanted to show how the pitch up stall rolls you into the turn in a skid .. after that the rest (full snap roll) is somewhat off topic .. but cool because you can string those together and do a snap rolling turn

I would love to see a video, where a pilot demonstrates a
spin entry ... hands off the stick.

Just power, rudder and trim.  I bet some wild gyrations would
be required to force the aircraft into a spin if the pilot wasn't
doing something horrible with the elevator and ailerons.

You know it was coming ... Let go of the stick. 

An airplane generally flies better without a pilot doing something
bad to it.  Oddly, this is rarely taught.

I will mention that there once was an incredible young pilot by
the name of Gene Soucy, that used to do snap rolls on final in
his S1 to kill airspeed.  I am not making this up.  It was a very
long time ago, when pilots actually had stick & rudder skills.