From: cohler@vxcrna.cern.ch (Mike Cohler)
Subject: Re: Glider Tow Pilots
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords: soaring
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 09:10:00 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.205537.23765@den.mmc.com>, hagood@sabre.den.mmc.com (Dave Hagood) writes...
>	I received this via e-mail:

  Lines deleted
> 
>|> In our club we teach that you *never* go high behind the tug, especially
>|> low down, since it is very easy to get into a divergent situation where
>|> you can tip the tug onto its nose in a matter of a few seconds, giving
>|> the tug pilot a possibly terminal problem to sort out.  This divergence
>|> is much quicker if you tow using the glider's belly hook.
> 
 I agree, that these soft releases sound very problematic potenitally.
ALL our instructors ALWAYS teach people to release in the normal position.
There are other potential problems apart from the glider upset you metioned.
Certainly, as  tug pilot, I am fully aware of the consequences of an "upset".
Although I have never had this happen to me, I know a colleague who was 
almost killed a few years ago, when a glider went high behind him, and
then 'winch launched' itself behind the tug.  Within a few seconds, the
glider was high and the cable load was such that the tug release could no
longer operate, and the combination was headed towards the ground at a 
steep angle and increasing speed.  The fact that the weak link finally
broke saved both the tug and the glider.
  If a glider ever gets so high behind me that I cannot see it in the mirror
I will dump the glider instantly, and save my own skin.  These soft releases
sound as if I might be dumping them if I were the tug pilot towing them.
In the UK, a soft release is never taught by instructors, and is frowned
upon for these reasons.   In addition if you release with a slack cable
and an accelerating glider, you run the risk of the flailing end of the cable
hitting the glider, and it is quite possible for the rings to hit the 
canopy and shatter it in flight, which is not something I would care
to have happen to me.  There is another possibility with releasing on
a slack rope, and that is for the cable to wrap itself around a wing. I know
of one incident a few years ago, where a cable caught itself in the slot
at the outboard end of the aileron, and pulled the tip off a wing.. the glider
landed and the pilot was not injured, but the potential for disaster is
all too obvious.
    A normal release, in the normal position, with a climbing turn is the
safest method of freeing a glider from its towplane.  Stay alive !!
Mike

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|                                                            |
|        Mike Cohler -  preferred email address:             |
|                       MDC1@VAXA.YORK.AC.UK                 |
|                   ie  MDC1%VAXA.YORK.AC.UK@UKACRL.BITNET   |
|                                                            |
|        UK PPL and Glider Pilot                             |
|                                                            |
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