On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 3:09:42 PM UTC-7, wrote:
I know this is a silly question, but I was reading an article by Dick Johnson that talked about holding a slight slip while thermally. This article was written before winglets and I was wondering if the same idea applied to gliders with winglets. Also, as for slipping to lose altitude for landing in a glider with winglets, does this place a lot of side load on the winglets. Should you not slip in landing with winglets?

Sorry for the questions, but would appreciate any help in this.

There are two other considerations:

A. The side of the fuselage meeting the airflow in a slight slip produces some lifting force.
And:
B: A bit of top rudder reduces the back pressure on the stick needed to hold your turn. That reduces the induced drag at the horizontal.

So what do you think?

Bob