As a corrolary to my post above let me toot my own horn and poss a few questions to you.

I have spun my ship more than 30 times, and probable done 1,000 incipent spin entries. I have practiced flying my bird on the very ragged edge of stall in every imaginable condition, weak weather, booming 10k gusty thermal condx, gusty wind condx etc. I have made a point to know every nuance of my bird so when thrust into an abnormal condition, my reactions can be automatic without needing the precious seconds to try and figure out what just happened. Can you say that about your bird? If so that great and that is what every xc glider guider needs to work toward.

In off field landings I can come over a 50 ft obstacle and have her stopped within 300ft in no wind condx, much less with a head wind. I have landed in fields, parking lots and baseball diamonds and have'nt given those landing a second thought. They were no big deal due to having spent literally thiusands of dollars on pattern tows practicing every concievable approach I could dream up of encountering. When is the last time anyone on this group has paid for about 10 pattern tows and practiced the skills needed when the time arrives? I do that every spring just to get tuned up. I'm not talking about pretty box patterns and long smooth touchdowns, but I practice very steep full spoiler/full slip approaches with the very minimum of energy in order to get into a postage stamp. Can you? If so thats great, but I dare say very few on here come anywhere near to trully knowing their ships and what they are and are not capable of.