Bruce Greeff wrote in message ...

Andy
Perhaps it would be wise to dump all ballast any time you expect to have
to thermal at low altitude. Then at least you are not playing test pilot.

Well, hopefully if the day warrants carrying a lot of ballast, you
won't need to do much low altitude thermalling. It's more likely you
will be thermalling in a gaggle, and spinning through that could also
ruin your (and other's) day. But at least out here in Arizona, some
low thermalling full is pretty common in the summertime, since we
often release from tow fully ballasted at 1000 - 1200ft agl right into
a nice thermal and climb out from there without any problem. I is
really a matter of basic airmanship - keep your airspeed up, fly
clean, pay attention to what the glider is telling you, and always be
ready to immediately unload and recover from an incipient spin.

Like an idiot I once released at 800 ft when I hit a real solid boomer
just off the end of the runway during a rushed local contest launch -
climbed out OK after recovering from the shock of looking at the
altimeter after pulling the release! Tow pilot was happy, since the
minimum charge is for 1000 ft, and there were others waiting to
launch.

Yeah, I know about always going to 2000' during a contest...

Kirk