Arnold Pieper wrote:
He made his last 90 degree right turn in ground effect, using rudder
only. I didn't see much of the touchdown or rollout, as I was running
for life and limb. The glider was undamaged. The pilot, on the other
hand...

To my knowledge, he never flew another glider.

A turn at low speed with rudder only is an invitation for a spin.
At low altitude, it will usually end exactly the way we saw in this video,
with the glider spinning right into the ground.

I wonder if this was use of rudder, or coarse use of rudder.
I suspect the steep bank and different wing airspeeds set it up,
and then an accelerated use of rudder caused the wingtip speeds
to be that much more (a skidding stab at the rudder seems like
it would have a different effect than slowly putting in rudder).


If your collegue performed that last turn at very high speed the glider
wouldn't turn with rudder only.
If it was at low speed, and below 2 feet altitude, one of the wingtips
certainly touched first and it wasn't very pretty.

I've done quite a few turns with level wings and using rudder
to turn below 2 feet. I've done it both on the takeoff
roll (to line up from being way off) behind the towplane, and
after landing to line up with the takeoff runway (about
120 degrees left).

In the first case I probably should have simply released immediately.
In the second case I should have stopped straight ahead.
Not because this was necessary (it wasn't, since de facto
everything worked out fine) but because it would
be better practice for flying a higher performance glider,
where both of these circumstances could possibly create a
ground loop.

The competition pilots stay REAL straight at low airspeeds.
I suspect a few ground loops have convinced them not to
put in adverse yaw (and rudder to turn) during taxi.