On Tuesday, August 28, 2012 6:25:32 PM UTC-5, jfitch wrote:

I think for most pilots, recovering from a spin initiated at 300 ft would scare the hell out of them. You should really not be intentionally putting yourself in a position where the hell can be scared out of you. If you are engaging in an activity that cannot be safely practiced, how then can it be safely done without practice?

The point of practicing recognition and recovery from departures (incipient spins) at altitude is to learn to recognize the symptoms and the immediate recovery procedures that apply to your glider. If you never really slow your glider down and actually recover - or not - from a departure, then your minimum altitude had better include enough to learn - which is probably a lot more than 1000'!

This is similar to the fiasco the FAA in the US went through with twin-engine VMC training long ago (60s?): FAA required single engine VMC demonstration at low altitude, and of course lost a bunch due to loss of control too low to recover. Dumb and totally unnecessary, of course, and was quickly changed to allow the demonstration at a high enough altitude to allow recovery if VMC became spin recovery. But the training for control at VMC is still required.

(VMC: minimum controllable speed on one engine - below that you run out of rudder & aileron to maintain control and depart into a spin, aggravated by the good engine running at full power - not fun at any altitude but deadly down low.)

Kirk