On Friday, June 21, 2013 4:21:55 PM UTC-6, Don Johnstone wrote:

This is why we teach the recovery as move the stick forward to adopt at
least the approach attitude AND wait until approach speed is gained. Then make the decision as to whether you are going to land ahead or turn.
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The math says you will do better to push the nose lower than the approach attitude both in recovering airspeed sooner and retaining as much altitude as possible.

Without the benefit of an angle of attack indicator, the greatest safety margin is to push the nose as far below the horizon as it was above at failure and hold it there until at least the "Yellow Triangle" airspeed is in hand. This "rule of thumb" prevents diving the glider into the runway from a low failure and provides a good margin at higher altitudes.

With an AOA indicator, if you chose, you could gently reload the wings at the top of the trajectory using an AOA equivalent to best L/D which results in the least loss of height. Since angle of attack determines whether the wing will stall, the airspeed at the beginning of the reload can safely be below the normal 1G stalling speed.

Speaking of AOA indicators and stick buzzers, does anyone think one might have saved this pilots life?