3. If I am in a glider connected to an airplane by a rope, and the pilot
ot
the airplane controls where I go, and I never detach, why would I need a
glider license?

"Because you are pilot in command of an aircraft. HOWEVER, if you are on a
car or boat tow, it is not an aircraft. There were plans in Popular Mechanix
for floating primary gliders in the old days, the big attraction was you
could "fly" with no license. It was illegal to pull the release except in an
emergency, but since neither the nonaircraft nor the nonpilot were licensed,
no one including the FAA much cared."

Response: So that means I could hook up a glider to a car and tow it around
the desert without a license? I am also a glider pilot, certified for all
three types of launch and I did fly at the Alvord Desert this summer, towed
behind a 1972 Buick Riviera known as the "Brown Turd". We used a 3,500 foot
cable and could climb at 1200 feet per minute up to 2,000 feet (the release
point). Although I did release and did fly the glider legally, the car
could have gone in circles around the edge of the desert while I was
descending and come back down without releasing. On numerous occasions, we
brought the glider back behind a low car tow and never released until the
last few feet of the ground.

Hey, it is not Friday anymore, guess I should go outside and get ready for
winter.

Colin