Hi Chris-

Thanks for herding the discussion toward more science and less emotion.

I apologize to anyone that may have been offended by my comments above re
"clueless". One person wrote a nice note pointing out that the family is
grieving enough without that type of thing.

The point I was trying to make was that those of us that choose to fly these
very long winged aircraft need to be keenly aware of impending problems and
react to them immediately should they begin to develop. If you decide to
thermal in turbulent conditions at just above stall speed then you should be
on edge every second you are doing so and if a gust begins to push you into
a spin or spiral then you should execute your already planned out and
hopefully second nature, correction. If you haven't thought of this plan or
possibility then you have no business flying at those speeds in that
aircraft.

Will having a plan ALWAYS get you out of trouble? No. But as others have
pointed out, in these birds you only have a very short time before there is
not any amount of skill that will save the aircraft.

Sorry to digress Chris.....I'd still really like to hear more about the
aerodynamic reasons that things go awry.....can only help to formulate the
best plan of action!

Casey