Originally Posted by
ANOpax
So I guess the issue for the instructor is "how do you assess P2's competency in spin recovery if P2 is the one being asked to spin the glider in the first place".
The refresher training should not be concentrating on spin recovery, it should be concentrating on spin recognition and avoidance. More than 50 % of all glider stall/spin accidents occur at or below 400 feet AGL. If you let the glider get into a spin at that low an altitude it doesn't matter how good your spin recovery technique is ......
If I were conducting the refresher training I would first demonstrate the classic over banked, stick back pressure, inside rudder, base to final stall and spin entry. I want the student to be totally familiar with what this deadly and all to common scenario looks and feels like. I would then get the student to fly the same profile and then recover when the aircraft departs into a spin.
I also feel strongly that unless you are teaching aerobatics any spin allowed to progress beyond a 1/2 turn is negative learning. What you want to impress upon the student is the necessity of immediate recovery and not letting the aircraft wind up and therefore lose a lot of altitude.
By the way what I have said above applies equally to powered aircraft training.