Chris OCallaghan wrote:

BTW, as I noted in another thread, spins are not caused by lack of
airspeed, but uncoordinated use of the controls -- at least in modern
sailplanes. Two things must happen to enter a spin: 1) you must
stall, and 2) you must fail to apply sufficient rudder during your
attempt to pick up the low wing with aileron. That is, the sailplane
is designed with enough rudder to stop autorotation, even with full
deflection of the aileron throughout the stall break.


Well, you have to precise what you are calling "uncoordinated use". I
remember an incipient spin in an ASH25 (can be considered as a modern
sailplane, although it existed well before I started gliding 9 years ago).
My mistake was only a to high nose up attitude while circling, which was
not obvious to me as it was my first flight in the aircraft (with an
instructor of course). Due to its high inertia, the sailplane was slowing
down very slowly to the speed corresponding to its attitude, and needed
while slowing down more and more action on controls to counter induced
roll and induced bank up to the point where I had almost full out stick
and a lot of inner rudder when the inner wing dropped. Of course the controls
were badly crossed, but some amount of cross control is normal in order
to counter induced roll and induced yaw, this is not an uncoordinated
flight, the yaw string is is the middle. The excess in cross control
was due to the fact that both induced effects increase when speed decrease,
not to a lack of coordination.

Another experience I had, which is also in contradiction with this opinion
(i.e. spin can only occur by lack of coordination) was when I was
preparing my instructor rating. As there was no other spinable glider
available, we had to demonstrate spin entry and recovery in a Fox, an
aerobatic glider. My instructor was Katona, a well known aerobatic
pilot, and he explained that in order to spin this glider I should
slow it down just very close to the stall and then have stick and rudder
to the same side. I objected that I had always be taught to push the
rudder to the side I want to spin ans the stick to the opposite side.
He said that in this case the Fox would do a flat spin, which is difficult
to exit and was not the objective of the present exercise.