Complexity...and clubs

A cocktail that doesn't always mix very well.
The issue of spinning and the requirement to demonstrate this in a basic training glider has clearly exercised the minds of our local instructors.

At first glance it appears an easy issue...
Stalling and spinning an aircraft close to the ground can be terminal...for the aircraft and its pilot. So we should know how to recognise a pending stall situation and how to recover from it...all good so far.

The complex bit is that currently the leading cause of gliding mishaps is land-out mistakes. And especially that of managing self-launching/turbo gliders when time is running short.

However not all our pilots go X-Country so are unlikely to face this problem. Further, some of our instructors only do "trial flights" and it is arguable that issues around managing passengers is the biggest risk they face...weight and balance for example...which may have caught out the pilot of the parachute jump plane in Fox Glacier last year...

We have pilots who may never fly the training aircraft each year but are required to do a BFR in one...one wonders whether it would be advisable to use a two seater more closely related to their most frequently utilised aircraft (if you can follow that convoluted sentence...)...

So I don't mean to be critical...BUT...surely being too prescriptive may have a counter-productive result. The words of the newly created rule "...an annual check flight in which flying skills including spin recovery competence are demonstrated..." might be better worded as "...an annual check flight that has regard for the likely flight skills that will be required by the pilot to be undertaken".
Stalls in turns or thermals can be demonstrated without the huge loss of height that spinning entails which then allows more time (and altitude) to demonstrate other skills...raising the turbo on the Duo perhaps...

However, with the imposition of Part 115, the airspace invasion about to happen in the Waikato, and the declining membership this whole issue might become a moot point...

Tomorrows forecast holds the possibility of westerlies and ridge/wave conditions, and perhaps some thermals added in to boot. I think the time has come for me to venture forth in GYL...or GNM...too too much choice...