At 04:00 17 January 2005, Greg Arnold wrote:
Are you sure? Imagine a flat spin. If the loose end
is pointing to the
left, doesn't that mean yoiu are spinning to the right?
So don't you
want left rudder?

You better sort that out in your head quick!

Think. Start straight level and slow. Feed in full
left rudder. The glider rotates (yaws) left but continues
initially on the track it was going. The airflow is
now coming more from the right and blows the yaw string
out to the left (the slip ball, which is free to move
in its tube, goes out to the right sharply because
the airflow is decelerating the whole aircraft apart
from it).

The left wing reaches the stall, the wing drops and
the angle of attack increases even further. The increase
in drag on the wing causes the glider to continue rotating
to the left.
The glider is now sinking rapidly with the left wing
more badly stalled than the right due to the rotation.
This means that the glider continues to yaw and roll
left.

Looking from above the glider is now following a circular
anti-clockwise path with the nose pointing into the
circle and the tail out. The airflow is still coming
more from the right (over the whole aircraft and not
just forward of the centre of gravity) and the yaw
string is being blown out to the left whether the nose
pitches down or up into a flat attitude or not. The
slip ball (and you) are trying to continue in a straight
line and feel a force throwing you to the right. This
is a left hand spin!

The anti-spin action at this point is to reduce the
yaw to the left with full right rudder; pull the string,
push the ball or step on the head of the snake (sounds
like a position in the Kama Sutra) as your personal
mantra dictates and then move the stick forward from
its central position (where I hope you placed it as
the spin developed) until the wing unstalls. Now centralise
the rudder before loading the wing up on the pull out
or you'll be off the other way.