A friend of my late father flew deliberately slower than normal in a visual circuit in order to stay behind a much slower aircraft on final. He told me that there was a brief shudder, then the aircraft departed without warning; he recovered it before it went fully-developed, overshot and landed off the next approach.
He was flying a Boulton-Paul Defiant and was trying to stay behind a Swordfish. His story remains ingrained in my memory along with the advice to go round and reposition if you're baulked on the approach - never try to fly slower than the normal approach speed! And not like the idiot I saw yesterday who extended 6 miles downwind in a PA 28 because of wake turbulence spacing from the 4-jet which was ahead........
[ 17 July 2001: Message edited by: BEagle ]