It�s been noticed in this thread that all Polish gliders to spin. This is, I believe reflected in the way Polish glider pilots are trained. Being fully trained Polish pilot (mid 70�) and having flown in Australia for more than 10 years, I though I might share my experience.
Firstly, every trainee pilot in Poland receives full spinning and spin recovery training before going solo. Actually completion of this stage is a pre-requisite of going solo. Secondly, a spin is considered and thought to be an aerobatic figure. To spin a glider, you are instructed to keep normal, level attitude, and then close to the pre-stall speed, you pull on the stick and initiate rudder action in the desired direction of spin and hold it back thorough the spin. When recovering, emphasis is to recover in a pre-chosen direction, usually, one or two full revolution. This is what you would be expected to do when asked to spin by a Polish instructor. I do not quite recall practicing incipient spins as much as it is done in Australia. Every instructor in Australia I flew with was somewaht dismissive of the above method of initiating a spin, unless I told up-front what I was about to do. In Poland, part of Silver C training (in Poland rating called, glider pilot class 2) includes aerobatics training: spinning, loops and wing-overs. This is done in a two-seater (Bocian, Puchacz) and a single-seater, now day Junior, I did it in Mucha 100. Part of class 1 glider pilot training includes advanced aerobatics which includes slow rolls and snap rolls and linking all aerobatic figures. This is done in Puchacz. Converting to a new aircraft in Poland requires three flights; one of them includes mandatory spinning and aerobatics. I am not trying to prove which system is better. Here in Australia we fly such a variety of gliders with completely different spinning characteristics that it is perhaps hard to device a standard approach for all of them and admittedly I do not hear about as many spinning accidents as I used to Poland, however, I think the Polish system makes the pilot more comfortable with spinning. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
