DOUBLED DOWN

We were coming in to land at a field where standard glider traffic included four legs, from a universal entry point, across the runway to downwind either direction. Soon as we arrived, I saw a STOL aircraft crawling around its wide base turn, kitty corner across our pattern, a mile away and at half our height. That other pilot had been practicing very slow approaches and very short landings into a steady wind for the past hour, round and round, entirely predictable.Given our separation, a casual observer might not have recognized any potential conflict, but the moment I saw his position a flashing alarm went off in my head. Despite appearances, it felt like we were on a weird kind of circular collision course, intersecting at the threshold. Fortunately that runway has ample grass off to one side, often used for short glider landings. Even so, I considered dashing down ahead to avoid a formation landing but declined because of how it could look to the other pilot, or to others who wouldn’t understand. Besides, it’s awfully spooky when a whirling meat cutter’s on your six and you can no longer turn…Having dismissed that option, the next choice was to fly as slow a circuit as possible waiting for our compadre to eventually clear the way. But he couldn’t cooperate because he didn’t know we were there, three full-size adults in a Schweizer 2-32 at maximum weight with a high stall speed, in effect stalking him.The subsequent pattern seemed to last forever. On crosswind and downwind legs the bogey was probably flying faster, but our ground speed was about double due to the tailwind. As we quartered into it on base he seemed to hang motionless, slowly pivoting in his turn to final. By the time we reached that point and turned fully into the wind he was still only halfway down, and then we really began to overtake him. I flew slowly as I dared all the way but had to keep something in reserve for wind gradient, doubly important at this end of the runway, where rising ground just before the threshold guarantees sink exactly when you need it least. Heavy as we were, it was not quite slow enough.We took that length of grass on the side of course, landing simultaneously, super short and right abreast of our compadre just as he powered up for another takeoff. He confirmed later that he never saw us.In hindsight, obviously I should have exercised my right-of-way long minutes earlier by diving in front, and to heck with appearances! No doubt mister slow flight would have enjoyed it as an entertaining break from monotony. Not something anyone’s apt to go out and practice, though. It’s one of those instances where you have to decide which rule to disobey and prepare to accept the consequences. Or as I always say, make decisions you can live with even if they’re wrong.To wit: a third option we haven’t mentioned is loitering at the top and entering your pattern later. Yeah, you can do that, and it’s usually the best solution — when it works. But there may be no better way to invite bad luck than coming down to a thousand AGL and then deciding to not go lower. This logical fallacy can be all it takes to conjure insidious sink of the widespread variety. I know whereof I blather. Best not volunteer to make such a play before acknowledging the silent peril that’s never certain but is always real! Caveat actor.