Non-defectivity of Grassmannian bundles over a curve

Let Gr(2, E) be the Grassmann bundle of two-planes associated to a general bundle E over a curve X. We prove that an embedding of Gr(2, E) by a certain twist of the relative Plucker map is not secant defective. This yields a new and more geometric proof of the Hirschowitz-type bound on the isotropic Segre invariant for maximal isotropic sub-bundles of orthogonal bundles over X, analogous to those given for vector bundles and symplectic bundles in [I. Choe and G. H. Hitching, Secant varieties and Hirschowitz bound on vector bundles over a curve, Manuscripta Math. 133 (2010) 465-477, I. Choe and G. H. Hitching, Lagrangian sub-bundles of symplectic vector bundles over a curve, Math. Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 153 (2012) 193-214]. From the non-defectivity, we also deduce an interesting feature of a general orthogonal bundle of even rank over X, contrasting with the classical and symplectic cases: a general maximal isotropic sub-bundle of maximal degree intersects at least one other such sub-bundle in positive rank.