Thoughts on crash/article in Soaring?

syoun10 wrote:
I have often wondered about what the author calls "high parasitic drag
approach".

Of course, it should never happen... but IF one found oneself very
high on final I have always thought the best strategy would be to pull
full airbrake, slip as much as possible and then dive as fast as
placarded limits allow. Drag increases with the square of speed, so
this should get you down with the steepest descent. In this scenario
you should bleed off speed to normal approach speed before getting into
ground effect.
snip
My experience and thinking process are probably derived from
hang-gliding where there are no spoilers or flaps and you can't
consistantly slip. Increasing the speed on final is the recommended
way of steepening the approach, in fact it is the ONLY way. I'm not
sure why this experience would not translate to sailplanes.
snip

It does translate to sailplanes. I did not see the article, so I don't
know about the "high parasitic drag" approach referred to, but I often
do an extreme version of this with a very high approach, full flap,
full spoiler, and a tail chute. In this configuration, I can just point
the nose at the round-out point, and the airspeed will remain stable,
even at an approach angle approaching 1:1. At steep pitch angles, the
glide geometry changes (e.g. lift is no longer equal to weight). So
there is some advantage to doing this, if it is done properly.

The normal procedure for using a tail chute for a short field landing
over an obstacle is to make the approach just clearing the obstacle,
then pitch down sharply and deploy the chute to get down as close to
the approach end as possible. One thing, you do have to be careful to
round out properly. If you do it too high, airspeed will bleed off
quickly, and you could stall. If you do it too low, you may not have
enough room to complete the roundout before the ground comes up to
simite thee. So this is a critical maneuver.

Now there are only a handful of gliders equipped with a chute, so this
is not generally applicable. The point is that if you have enough drag,
it can be done. IIRC the Grob 103 manual actually says that it is
permissible to either use the brakes to control glide path and pitch to
control airspeed, or to use pitch to control glide path and brakes to
control airspeed. But the G103 has very powerful brakes.

So I have always taught only to use pitch for airspeed and brakes (and
slip) to control glide path. This method works with all gliders, even
those without good brakes (it also applies to airplanes using the
throttle in place of the brakes). And it does not require as much skill
as the other method. As long as it is done properly, there is no need
for the other method, except possibly for landing in a small field with
a big obstacle. But this should only arise if you are flying aggressive
cross country, and you should not be doing that until you are more
skilled.

A steep approach is especially unnecessary for landing at an airport
without obstructions (on the approach end). And it won't be very
effective without deploying the dive brakes, especially with the wheel
retracted.