Could be. I think the approach speed in my flight manual
is several knots below best L/D. I'll have to double-check.
Of course at my home airport (Minden), there's hardly
ever less than 15 knots of wind in the afternoon...

...egads, maybe I'm flying too slow!!!

9B

At 18:24 01 September 2004, Chris Ocallaghan wrote:
I'd always assumed there were two factors in choosing
a pattern speed.
First, safety, thus the +5 for turbulence. The other
was to place the
glider at best speed to fly. That way if you have to
put the spoilers
away, you are guaranteed to cover the maximum distance.
If I recall,
the simple formula for best speed was best l/d speed
plus 1/2 the
headwind. Don't recall the second ever being explained
though. Just
seemed to fit.