Spinsand hangar flying

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

I thought in light of a very recent mishap we should start a hangar flying thread on spins or any other flight regime so desired. I will start, please no judgment, just constructive comments, questions, stories...

I have never gotten into an accidental spin. I have on several occasions, including one with a 26.5 meter Nimbus 4T have a glider stall and start to spin, but I have always recovered within 1/4 turn "knock on wood". As a mountain pilot, it is not uncommon to be thermaling just a few hundred feet above the terrain, in gusty conditions. While I add five knots for the pup I consider this type of flying normal. While over valleys, low land, I have a hard deck of 500 feet, and I am pretty sure in over 1600 hours I have not climbed out from much lower than 700 feet.

[Charlie Quebec]

I read a very good article on training yourself for low altitude thermal lung.
The ideas was to find a thermal at say 1200ft, then leave it and rejoin lower, and keep repeating down to the hard deck.
I found doing it very useful as a reference to the changing nature of thermals as you get lower.
Best to brief the daily instructor before hand, to keep their stress levels down.