On Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 9:04:26 PM UTC-7, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 2/10/2015 7:58 PM, wrote:
If you inadvertently fly into the yellow range and kiss the red range, and
you get into the high speed vibration, what is the best way to slow before
the wings depart the glider. My sense is to reach for the spoilers and
slowly extend to slow. Any opinions on that matter?


Priority One: Undo what you last did to get yourself into that situation -
which as stated appears to have been too much forward stick. Assuming gravity
(and not your straps or "purely" centripetal force) is keeping your butt
pressed into the seat, get the stick back promptly, which will have the almost
immediate effect of reducing the rate of energy increase, and even better - if
you get the nose up high enough - reducing its accumulation.

Once you're happy with your energy-state, you can can consider doing "other
stuff"...dropping the gear (will mostly make noise), spoilers (if below their
max opening speed and you're physically/mentally prepared for a "Holy S&*%!"
experience if this is your first opening of them at any speed not fairly close
to your normal pattern entry opening speed); etc.

Priority Two: Throughout, keep your mental cool, rationally assess the effect
of everything you do before doing something else, and seriously consider
landing ASAP depending on the nature/seriousness of the vibration (which, of
course you really can't completely assess from inside a flying cockpit).

Priority Three: RTFM (if the ship has one; U.S. Exp. Amateur Built ships may
not have much of one, if any)!

Bob W.

P.S. Of course, RTFM is actually Priority One, but the question as-posed
precludes reasonably doing so. :-)

I think the key point is smoothness on the controls.

If the ground is no factor, don't try to fix things too quickly. Ease back a tiny bit until the airspeed starts a slow downward trend then let that trend ease you out of the dive. If the wings are still on, they'll probably stay on as the airspeed bleeds off.

If the ground is an issue, aim to scare the crap out of the worms by using all the height you have left in a low G pull out. You want to just barely miss the earth. As the airspeed drops into the yellow arc, slowly add up to 1/3 of your up elevator travel and when it gets into the green arc you can pile on more G up to your gliders useful load factor but beware of a secondary accelerated stall.

I would not recommend spoilers at all especially if you are pulling G. They shift the spanwise lift distribution outboard increasing the bending stress on the wing spar. In a low pullout, spoilers increase the radius and the likelihood of hitting the ground.