At 02:00 27 March 2005, Bill Daniels wrote:

The wing drop thing is easy to judge. Just watch the
ailerons. If they
don't start to move until the wing hits the ground
or nearly so, it's pilot
error. If they move to the stop as soon as the glider
tilts a tiny bit yet
the wing still goes down, he gets a pass. Any good
instructor, towpilot, or
any good pilot for that matter, can watch a takeoff
and get a good idea of
how well a pilot flies.


I'd be surprised if you'd see many examples of reactions
that slow on the
contest circuit. In my experience 90+% of wing drops
happen despite full
opposite controls. A really experienced pilot will
hold off on control input
until he has enough speed, otherwise the downward deflection
of the
aileron will increase the angle of attack and stall
the tip. So sometimes it's
best to wait until the wing is nearly on the runway.
In this test you'd flunk
the pilots who are really inattentive as well as the
ones who are really
experienced.

I wish it were simple.

9B