Bob you are a genius. I was almost to the conclusion that the pilot walked around the sailpane once and then as he walked away the second time he simply retraced and stepped into his previous foot prints but your conclusion is much more thought out and conclusive.

I think we can all agree that without the metallic cover, the pilot would have been used as a live medical experiment on board the mother ship.

On a side note, the scout ship does in fact have a strong enough tractor beam, however they wanted to bring home an example of the best sailplane earthlings have and this one was a Js-1, not a Schempp-Hirth which explains why it was unable to make it back to the airport in the first place.