I have used the high speed parasitic drag approach, and others.

First point is - no-one here has mentioned that the appropriate action depends
on the wind speed and direction.

In all cases drag increases at the square of velocity.
If you have a really low drag glider that is optimised for high speed you might
not get that high a return.
In a low performance ship the results are dramatic.

Consider being way too high on final approach in a low wing loading wood and
fabric trainer. If you are in still air, or have a tail wind then diving will
work best. Maximum drag, get close to the ground, bleed speed off.
If you have a strong headwind you can slow down and increase your angle of
decent, not rate. This is the inverse calculation of working our McCready speed
for best XC distance. Here you want to reduce the distance by flying too slowly.
One hint - you will be descending through wind gradient so leave a height +
speed reserve to compensate close to the ground.

Another technique is - if you see you are too high turning onto final, why
continue the turn. Extend the base leg a bit, make a steep 90 degree turn back
and line up. It is a sort of S turn, but more effective in that you start from
90 degrees to the landing point.

I know at least one pilot who has serious injuries from making an S turn and
losing it. So any of the approaches carries risk. We generally teach side
slipping as the preferred method, and with 6000 feet of runway - land long
rather than spin in trying to nail the threshold. Landing in a field is a
different matter.

I must agree the 360 is a bad idea. Not saying you should never do it - I did it
once to avoid conflicting traffic - but it is not advisable/comfortable to lose
sight of the runway low down. Use the appropriate one for the circumstances.

wrote:
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