On Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 2:45:23 PM UTC-6, Papa3 wrote:
I remember reading the term for the first time in a Charlie Spratt Sailplane Racing News from the late 80s or early 90s. It was definitely the little blood-sucking parasite variety. A quick check of the Soaring magazine archive turns up this quite amusing article by George Moffat in 1979:

http://www.ssa.org/Archive/ViewIssue...nth=12&page=48

Check out the old leeching technology from the Oct 1980 Soaring Mag, pg 2.

http://www.ssa.org/Archive/ViewIssue...onth=10&page=2