Originally Posted by
RatherBeFlying
While full spin demonstrations are useful in early training so that students understand them including how to recover, the hazard of emphasis on keeping the stick all the way back on entering a full spin is that it builds muscle memory that can kill you in a spin entry turning base or final.
The ground will get in the way of a recovery from a low level full spin.
The emphasis needs to be on never allowing a wing drop in the circuit to develop into a spin.
We lose many more pilots from spins in the circuit than spins from altitude.
/\ What he said. Unless you are deliberately doing glider aerobatics in a certified aerobatic glider and have the appropriate training, keeping pro spin controls in after the departure from controlled flight has no use in conventional gliding. It also as was mentioned, is negative training. IMO the most useless exercise in glider training is when the Instructor says "show me a one turn spin". Spin training both during initial and recurrent training should be scenario based on how glider pilots get into trouble in the real world. The recovery should be started as soon at the break and performance is measured on how quickly normal controlled is regained and on how little altitude lost. The muscle memory you want to develop is the instinctive stick forward ailerons neutral control yaw with rudder at the moment the glider starts to depart from controlled flight.