On Wednesday, June 5, 2013 4:30:34 AM UTC-4, wrote:
"Can some one point me at a single seat glider that won't spin?"



Rutan Solitaire? :-)



Of course there are quite a few that are placarded against deliberate spins.



Always loved deliberately spinning the L-13's the club used to have. The L-23 isn't quite as much fun in a spin. Never managed to get a real spin out if the Twin Astir RG or Acro but the DG-505 does it nicely. We used to have an early Standard Jantar which would drop a wing and spin pretty steep and fast (by glider standards) with little warning. My ASW-15B really has to be provoked to enter a spin.



Regardless of what the FAA found regarding the risk/benefit relationship of spin training in general aviation I would think that with gliders the fact that we spend so much time flying relatively close to stall speed would mean that spin training would have a higher benefit for us than light aeroplane pilots.



Changes made in the training syllabus in Canada regarding spins since I started flying in 1998 are that there is much more emphasis on recognizing stall/spin warning signs and correctly responding to them. The actual full blooded spins are now done with a slow, shallow banked turn combined with too much bottom rudder as the entry. When I started flying we used to enter the spin from a straight ahead sharp stall combined with quick full rudder deflection.

I used to enjoy spins in the L-13, too. We require spin training for all
our students, but we put it as a post-solo lesson. Pre-solo we cover
stalls, stall awareness, and slow flight (incipient stall) once the student
has mastered basic control of the aircraft.

I'll disagree about Grobs spinning. They don't stay in the spin very long,
but they depart in a most impressive manner if you enter properly. The
entry is the exact setup that catches people by surprise -- slow speed,
shallow turn, bottom rudder, and then react "instinctively" with aileron
instead of rudder. The wing drops very quickly and one finds oneself looking
up at the ground. This only lasts about half a turn before becoming a
spiral dive, but it happens even with forward cg. It's good to see this
in a Grob because the Grob has a reputation as being hard to stall or spin.
It also leads into a discussion that other planes the pilot will fly can
depart more quickly and stay in longer, and teaches them to be vigilant
because even in a "benign" plane the entry can be a killer.

Matt