"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:3fac007b$1@darkstar...

tell the difference, so I was too scared to do
anything but recover immediately (release the cross-controlled
inputs).

With all due respect ......

That is not a spin recovery, never was and never will be although I'll admit
that in the right circumstances it will occasionally work.

If you are intentionally trying to spin not knowing how to recover properly
then you either have balls the size of footballs or are seriously mentally
challenged.

A STANDARD recovery is

CENTRALISE AILERONS
FULL OPPOSITE RUDDER.
SLIGHT PAUSE
STICK PROGRESSIVELY FORWARD UNTIL THE SPINNING STOPS.
CENTRALISE THE RUDDER.
RECOVER FROM THE RESULTING DIVE.

Very occasionally there may be a 'non standard' method in the POH but they
are few and far between. To be certified a glider should recover reliably
using the standard proceedure.

There is an excellent post by Bill Dean ( and others ) about this in the
archives ( a year ago )
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?q=...ara.net&rnum=2

Ian