On Jun 13, 6:58*pm, BobW wrote:
On 6/13/2012 2:18 PM, John Cochrane wrote:

Snip...



Last comment -- towplanes. It's common in contests to bring in
towplanes that have been ferrying 2-33's all season long. They take
off and head for the sky while the glider is still on the ground or in
ground effect. This is especially hard for standard class gliders with
inadequate angle of incidence. The maneuver is as explained in someone
else's earlier post -- the tow plane should take off as normal, but
stay low until it has reached tow speed. You know you're headed for
trouble when the chorus of "more speed" erupts from glider after
glider.

Bemused Question (from a non-contest pilot):

John's complaint about 'not dialed in' contest tuggies is a recurring theme in
my years of reading contest reports, RAS, engaging in BS sessions, etc.

I've long been puzzled why this should be so. Let's assume everything John
posits above is spot-on.

Where's the breakdown? Failure to communicate to tuggies in pre-contest
briefings? Idiot towpilots? Something(s) else?

I realize all it takes is for one tuggie to make one bad tow for it to become:
a) a life-threatening problem; b) majorly gripeworthy, and c) highly 'O
Beer-thirty' worthy. Item a) by itself would seem sufficient justification for
contest organizations to 'work really hard' to ensure the problem doesn't
happen. Further, it's not as if this is a new situation, after all. The
problem certainly shouldn't be endemic, or untreatable? What am I missing?

Just curious...

Bob W.

P.S. I've never seen this same situation even remotely approach 'an endemic
situation' at beaucoup 'semi-watered' camps I've attended over the years,
where volunteer club tuggies are the norm.

Bob,

I think is is mostly a matter of habit with tow pilots. I have had a
few close calls with tow pilots that don't pay attention. When I am
loaded I tell them on the radio and confirm that they know I am full
of water. As Bruno said in one of the origional posts I had a tow
pilot after I told him I was heavy climb to about 50 feet and hold 60
while I sat in the ground and watched the runway being eaten up. I
finally had to release and almost didn't get stopped before the end of
the runway. On the following tow he apologized for not flying faster
for my 30 gallons of water. My response was I had 50 gallons on and
his only response was "oh". More common is for tow pilots that are
used to pulling up in lift to do it with a heavy glider. It is a habit
you can do with light glider, but a loaded glider starts to wallow
like a pig. Very few tow pilots have flown a loaded glider or they
would never fly slow with one.