S-turns on final

On Monday, February 13, 2017 at 2:45:27 PM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Came across a blast from the past on youtube. There was a video of teaching s-turns for glide path control. Looked to be from the 40's. Not sure why they would teach this when a slip would be safer and more effective.

If the pilot has the skills and judgement to use S turns on final without reducing safety margins, he or she most likely would have the skills and judgement to not need them.
UH

On Wednesday, February 15, 2017 at 11:51:27 AM UTC-8, wrote:

If the pilot has the skills and judgement to use S turns on final without reducing safety margins, he or she most likely would have the skills and judgement to not need them.
UH

Heh, heh. Irony.

If I have a lot of room before touchdown (and even more than a lot of height in this scenario) and I need to make space I'll extend a leg or two in my pattern or make a circle. If I'm on short final I really want my velocity vector pointed at the runway and not a lot of bank on. I especially don't like the idea of a lot of maneuvering, reversing turns, etc when I'm close to the ground and needing to focus on a dozen other really important things. A stabilized approach makes a lot of other potential problems less problematic. It should be sufficient to use spoilers, landing flaps if you got 'em and an aggressive slip (which also guards against spin entry since it's the opposite of a skidding turn). Maybe there is a place for S-turns between turn to final and short final if you are ridiculously high and flying a really slippery glider with weak spoilers and no flaps. Fortunately, I don't fly one of those.

9B