Bert Willing wrote:
Don't get me wrong: I am very cautious close to the ground, even though I
did extensive spin testing with my ship. I actually very often do not come
to the conclusion that this or that low level IS safe, and then I don't do
it.
It's just statements like "never thermal below 400ft" which I don't like,
although I agree that in many (maybe most) cases it would be unsafe. "Never"
and "always" don't help people to practise actively thinking about every
single situation they're in, and I think that it this lack of active
situational awareness which is a main cause of fatal accidents.
If you keep telling that "never below x feet", some will think "well my
alti reads x+100ft, so I can safely thermal" - and that might be totally
wrong for a special situation.

Hi Bert

In this case I am entirely in agreement - situational awareness and evaluation
of the possible outcomes is fundamental. The "I will never spin THIS plane
unintentionally so it is always safe" is equally dangerous to the "never thermal
below x feet rule"

Know your aircraft, evaluate the situation and the weather and make a reasoned
decision as to how much risk to take. This is OK, and some people will accept
different risk levels, and what is dangerous for a low timer may be safer for an
experienced pilot. Note I did not say safe - just safer. Flying gliders is
dangerous - accepting that and managing the risk is the key step to being safer.

There has to be some motivation to take risk though, and hubris is a poor
reason. The complications arise with objectivity - most people are less
objective about their own capabilities than they think (me included)

If you are low and in the circuit I still believe you should land unless there
is some hazard on the runway that increases the risk of landing above the risk
involved in thermalling low down, possibly below spin recovery height, where
there is the probability of conflicting traffic. Under pressure objectivity
tends to decrease - rather err on the side of caution, as you said.

To paraphrase a bumper sticker - A bad day retrieving beats a good day in hospital.

Bruce