Did spin training today and holy ish!

[User546]

so in my case, both were true: nothing in the back seat, nothing in the baggage area, so i was in the clear, right? it was a 172R model, just 2 pilots in the front and that's it.

Just having two pilots in the front and nothing in the back doesn't automatically put you in the Utility category.

To determine that, you have to break out your weight & balance you did for that particular flight, then check your C.G. against the graph that Cessna provides in their manuals to determine what category exactly you were flying in. It's very important to always check those two things before doing any spin practice.