Unintentional fully-developed spins...

In article ,
Marc Ramsey wrote:

Chris Nicholas wrote:

Marc Ramsey wrote:
"OK, I'm curious. How many of you have had to recover
from a fully developed (greater than one turn), unintentional
spin that occurred during normal non-aerobatic flight?" [snip]


In slightly more than 1000 hours in all types of soaring, in ships
ranging from old wood, old metal, old glass, and new glass, I have never
had any inadvertant spin go more than 1/2 turn. That was in a 1-26 that
went "over the top" with me due to a terrrifically strong gust in a
turbulent thermal. Took me a sec to realize it was a spin entry and not
just the gust overpowering my aileron control.

I have witnessed two fully developed unintentional spins. Both by the
same pilot in two different ships. First was in a Ka-6 at altitude. I
was cruising over to join this fellow in a thermal when he just tucked
and spun two rotations before affecting recovery. He made a rather
excited radio call about the glider "spinning out from under him". I
chose not to join him in that or any other thermal. The second I saw
from the ground. The same guy was returning to the airport too low in an
SGS 1-23D. On entry to downwind (estimated to be about 700 agl), the
nose dropped sharply and the glider rotated a bit more than one full
rotation. We all thought he was going to buy the farm on that one.
Fortunately, he recovered and pulled back to wings level with about 200
feet to spare (we lost him behind the trees from our viewing angle). He
managed to land on the airport but didn't make the runway. He stopped
flying gliders after that.