Hallo Bert "TW"
Through a convoluted series of links, I stumbled into and read a very good article on "How To Survive Gliding" which at the end credits you.
Wielen danke.
Jim

http://www.tango-whisky.com/How%20to...%20Gliding.pdf


On Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 5:51:16 AM UTC-8, Tango Whisky wrote:
Le mercredi 3 février 2016 13:15:10 UTC+1, Justin Craig a écrit*:
Don,

the answer is simple. Don't fly a Nimbus 4 if you do not feel competent to
do so.

Justin,

"feeling competent to" is probably he cause of death #1 amongst glider pilots.

I absolutely agree with you that if one doesn't feel competent to fly an open glass glider, then he shouldn't. But "feeling compentent" might be a different thing than "being competent".
I'm not addressing that to any person in specific. However, having spin experience in a ASK21 or a Discus does not mean that you will survive a fully developed spin in an open glass ship. The momentum of the wing is about 3-5 times larger than that of a 15m glider, and when you do the right inputs to stop the spin, the large momentum means that until the actual rotation is stopped, you are accelerating nose down by 70-80 deg with negative flaps for almost a full turn. So if you wait for the rotation to have stopped before you pull up, there is almost no way that the wings would stay with you.. If you don't wait long enough, you might re-stall the wing. The margin for a successful exit is very slim, while on a 15 m ship it is absolutely easy.

Been there, done that long ago on a 26 m ship, happy to be still alive. After that event, any incipent stall on a ASH25 got my immediate attention.