Debunking Glider Spoiler Turns Causing Spin Thinking

Bruno, thanks for a thought provoking post and video.

You made me think about what I do when in the landing pattern. I fly a standard pattern, flaps in landing configuration, spoilers cracked on downwind, spoilers adjusted to achieve the right angle on down wind, base and final as required. I'm fairly certain I don't adjust the spoilers during turns.. I don't remember ever hearing anything about no spoiler adjustments during turns. However ---never really thought about it, but moving the stick, and adding rudder during the turn seems like enough workload without adjusting the spoilers too. BTW I use 1.5Vso + 1/2 gust speed. I'm going to try, at altitude (like you) turning near Vso (stall) and adjusting the spoilers to see the effect.

Chuck Zabinski