gyrene, when you guys have been around longer you might not have commented as you did. bow, imadot, you two seem to have been around long enough to know better.
Countless WW2 planes came back in horrible mangled fashion, but they got home.
In AH, you can most times use the EXISTING aileron to roll toward the intact wing. It requires a lot of effort and concentration, and you cannot use autopilot or combat trim, but you can make it back. Landing? That's another question.
I'd be much more inclined to think something's up with the stability. I recall quite clearly many times in the past where I've lost both outboard wingtips so the roll effect mostly nullifies itself, and rudder use helps you fly home. These were long ago, though. Lately, I've had it happen a few times in recent AH history, but the plane was so unstable and bouncing around across all axes -- even with flaps out -- that it was uncontrollable.
Being able to maintain some resemblence of control with 1 wingtip missing is normal and intentional in this game.
What he's saying in his post is that he can't do that anymore. Something has significantly changed. Many people who have been around longer and paying more attention than you all are noticing many changes with the latest patches, and he is reporting one of them in an attempt to report a bug, or to find out from HTC if this is something other than a bug.