On Sat, 02 Aug 2003 19:46:45 GMT, mike regish wrote:
Had my first glider ride Saturday, July 26. It was at Sterling, Ma. with the
snip; spin

Spinning is an occupational hazard in soaring. Fly a glider long enough,
especially an aerobatic capable glider like the Blanik L-13 or L-23, and
it's only a matter of time before you at least inadvertently stall or
go into the incipient stage of spin (especially if you're low time).

When conditions are weak (especially) and thermals are tight you need to
have a small turn radius to climb in the lift. To do this you are usually
nibbling at the edge of the stall, or at least, not far away. As you go
through the different parcels of air, it's quite common to have 5 knots
suddenly go away. Going this slow and turning, in many gliders, you
have some element of cross control to keep it coordinated. If you try
and lift a wing with aileron...

Spin training is very much on the agenda in glider training. I've
(deliberately) spun the Blanik at both the Soaring Club of Houston and
here at Andreas many times. In training, the instructor will often have
you enter stalls from a thermalling turn so you can recognise the
incipient spin that may happen.

Personally, I've never inadvertently spun a glider, but I've had several
unintentional stalls when trying to core tight thermals. It's just a matter
of life and you have to learn very well to recognise a stall and immediately
recover - not only to avoid losing the height you've been desperately
struggling to gain on a weak day, but to avoid a possible spin (especially
on a weak day as you're probably not very high to start with).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"