On Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:03:01 -0700, T8 wrote:

On Jun 23, 11:14Â*am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:

Apart from anything else, your hand should be on the release knob
during the launch, so pulling it a couple of times immediately after
pushing over and just before letting go of it is an obvious move. That
is taught as SOP in my club.

That's surprising to me... a non-winch qualified guy. On an aero tow, I
would call that very risky business indeed.

On the winch there is a cable under tension connecting the glider's CG to
a few tonnes of winch. A consequence of this is that the glider is
unlikely to make sudden vertical movements before release - the main
effect of turbulence, thermals or gradient is to affect airspeed rather
than cause sudden vertical movements. This is quite unlike aero-tows.


Apart from that, exactly what you do with your release hand depends on
the cockpit arrangement in the glider:

- in the SZD Junior, where the T-shaped release grows out of the top left
of the panel on a stiff cable, you can put your left arm on the canopy
tail, straight fingers resting on the release. Closing the hand and
pulling is one fast, simple action.

- in a Libelle, where the release is on a relatively long cable between
your legs, your left arm is on your leg with fingers resting on the T-
shaped release. Again its simply a matter of close fingers and pull.

In both gliders rough ground or turbulence is unlikely to cause an
inadvertent release because (1) your hand isn't wrapped round the
release, (2) the cable isn't tight and (3) your arm ands hand is
supported. The situation isn't as clear-cut in, say, an ASK-21 with its
yellow ball dangling in mid-air, but you still want your hand very close
to it - touching but not grasping is good.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |