Puchaz Spinning thread that might be of interest in light of the recent accident.

Stewart Kissel wrote:

'Pull back, Pull back, okay kick in full rudder'-and
the thinking might go-'Gee, how does anyone get into
a spin, this is way to much work'

Yeah, this is pretty useless and I don't do that. Here's something I
posted about 3 years agog.

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I became a learn to spin convert after
unintentionally spinning on my very first flight in a single seat
glider. I was thermalling and (presumably) got too slow and
uncoordinated and, over she went. I'd had spin training and the recovery
was a no brainer.

I totally agree that teaching spins by pulling the nose up and then
stomping on the rudder is not particularly useful (fun though . I do
demonstrate this technique first so that the student feels what the spin
feels like. Then he won't be surprised and can pay more attention to
what I'm trying to teach.

After the "yank and stomp" spin, I explain that that isn't the spin that
will kill you. At altitude, I simulate a slow base to final spin,
gradually slowing the glider down, pretending that we're over shooting
the runway center line and then "helping" the turn along by adding
inside rudder. As I'm adding rudder, the glider enters the spin AND THE
NOSE WAS NEVER ABOVE THE HORIZON. After about 1/2 a rev, I'll mention
to the student that if this had happened at 400 feet, we'd be dead about
now. It's a real eye opener.



Tony V.