NoSpam wrote:
Teaching students to fly in so called "unspinable" gliders has to be one
of the the most reckless and dangerous things done... How do you expect
someone to learn how to fly safely when they are not taught to do so
from the beginning. If students are exposed to the danger from day one,
made aware of it, and taught how to recognize it they will inherently
become safer pilots, and will not be surprised when they get into a
glider that does spin. The PW-6, and for that fact ANY training glider
that does spin do definitely have an advantage over the ASK-21. If a
student doesn't have to worry about inadvertently putting the glider
into a spin "because the tail ballast is out" they won't pay attention
to how well they are flying, and that is definitely dangerous.

The ASK 21 is widely used around the world (750!), so it seems evidence
for this belief should be available. Do you know of any statistics that
suggest students trained in the ASK 21 are more likely to have
spin-related accidents while flying other gliders?

I'm guessing they have fewer spin-related accidents during training, so
one would have to balance any extra risk after training against the
reduced risk during training.
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Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

www.motorglider.org - Download "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane
Operation"