On 6/2/2012 9:12 AM, Dan Marotta wrote:
All the concern about nose vs. CG release and the correcting force of
the nose release indicates, to me, poorly trained or lazy pilots. If you
will simply fly the aircraft and pay attention to your flight path,
you'll find that it makes no difference what type of release you have
(unless you're doing a ground launch).

Do some of you actually rely on the nose release to keep the nose
aligned rather than flying the aircraft?

I did in some conditions, such as cross winds and unassisted (no wing
runner) takeoffs. When the glider is moving slowly at the beginning of
the launch, there is no "flying" the glider - you are ballistic for a
length of time that depends on the wind and towplane acceleration.

Once aerodynamic control is available, then the differences between CG
and nose hooks are reduced, but in all the gliders I've flown, it was
still noticeable. How noticeable did depend on the glider type.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)