There is described a method of controlling a drilling operation. A pipe joint is determined to be entering a rotating control device (RCD). In response to determining that the pipe joint is entering the RCD, a weight-on-bit (WOB) setpoint is increased so as to increase a measured WOB. After increasing the WOB setpoint, the pipe joint is determined to be exiting the RCD. In response to determining that the pipe joint is exiting the RCD, the WOB setpoint is decreased so as to decrease the measured WOB.