On Oct 22, 7:57 am, wrote:
On Oct 21, 11:13 am, Tim Taylor wrote:
[snip]
If you are THAT much too high, wouldn't it also be prudent to consider
a large 360? It may not be pretty, but let's face it, if you have
turned final and just THEN realized you're way too high, you've
already lost all your style points.

Was this a serious comment? How many more people have to die to prove
you should not be suggesting turning away from the runway? A pilot was
killed in the Sierras in the last few years doing exactly this and we
had at least another major accident this year in the Sierras this year
with the same thing. It is on of the precursors to stall-spin
accidents, nasty scenarios like if unexpected lift cause the glider to
be high, the turn takes the glider out of lift, now you are going down
fast and pointing the wrong way. And low and the ground is coming up
at you, maybe I'll pull back more, push that foot to make the nose go
round, ugh, oh f!@#... Use S-turns, parasitic drag approaches, slips
etc. but don't turn away from the runway.

---

As for the high speed/paracitic drag approach Cindy Brinkner talked
about this at an SSA convention a few years ago. Maybe she has slides
available etc. I was suprised by the whispering amongst some people
in the audience about "ohh this is bad". I see it as a very useful
tool to have in your toolkit. I think Cindy's points were don't try it
by yourself - go take a ride with an knowledgeable instructor and that
in the hands of less experienced piltos in the right gliders this may
be a safer techqunique than slipping - I've seen pilots who have *no*
clue how to really slip to loose height, far too timid, nose just a
little off center - I have no idea if they were taught better and have
just forgotten or what.

Like Marc says the Duo tends to hold energy and makes this somewhat
less useful (but it still works, you do come down faster), but slips
work great in a Duo as compensation for not overly effective spoilers.
I was all set to demonstrate a parasitic drag approach in a Duo today
but the instructor doing the check ride thought a rope break would be
better :-(

Things are not black and white, I'd hope good pilots want to try out
different techniques, see what works best in different gliders and
situations and have the benefit of different tools at their disposal.

Darryl