Spin Training

Bill Dean,
The tone of the spin discussion has taken a rather harsh turn, lately. I may be
responsible for some of it, because I allowad myself to be sucked into a
discussion of gun control, socialized medicine, slavery and Oh yes, spins. The
harsh tone was not my intention and my posts have been in a sincere belief that
your spin training is outmoded.

You asked about my qualifications to address this issue. I have spent a
lifetime in the air and will turn 70 this year, if I can still recognize the
signs of impending departure from controlled flight, for another summer. I have
flown sailplanes for 30 years and logged over 4000 hours, mostly in cross
country flight. I have owned over 40 ships and flown most of what's out there,
including G-103, ASK-13, ASK-21, two-place Lark, Puch, Blanik. I have stalled
and done spin entry in all of them and even took the ASK-13 on a cross country
(won't do that again). I served as safety officer of our club (450 members) for
10 years. The only spin accidents I can remember in my 30 years soaring in
Northern California is a single place lark (fatal), PZL-59 (impact absorbed by
tree branches, pilot walked away) and recently a PW-5 (impact absorbed by tree
branches, pilot walked away). God blass those trees!

I served as a staff officer at TAC Hq. in the USAF and one of my duties was to
review all reconnaissance accidents in the command. I remember one vividly.
RF-4C was lost practicing a pop-up maneuver. The Director of Operations wanted
to know why we were still teaching that maneuver because new equipment and
tactics made it no longer necessary. The training syllabus was changed and
pop-up maneuvers were no longer taught. I believe you may have allowed your
glider training to fall into the same situation. New German ships (both single
seaters and 2-place) have rather docile spin characteristics. I question the
need to do spins in ships like the Puch, at all? Here in the US, we no longer
require spin trainingl, due to excessive spin training accidents. I do believe
most sailplane instructors still teach spin recognition and spin avoidance
(recovery within 1 revolution).

Now, don't tense up, it's just a suggestion, but if the US had the UK spin
training accidents, I would raise the red flag as high as I could get it. I
would call for a complete review of how we teach spins, what ships we do it in
and and how we taught spins. I would ask for a complete review of the training
materials with an eye on removing things like deliberately initiating a spin at
800 feet. Our gliding environment isn't as rigid as yours, but we find some,
"Monkey-See, Monkey-Do", over here in the colonies. If a low time pilot sees
the local "Hot-Shot", come screaming over the glider tie-down area at 5 feet
and 150 knots, he may very well try it himself, but not have the expertience to
pull it off. The same might happen when a sailplane is seen deliberately spun
in the pattern, don't you think?

Old ways die hard, Bill. The US Army kept a detachment of cavalry throughout
World War 2, just in case those tanks didn't work out.

Best Regards,
JJ Sinclair