On Monday, February 10, 2014 8:55:46 AM UTC-6, son_of_flubber wrote:

Are you saying that high performance gliders are incapable of kiting, or that the pilot of a high performance glider will never pull back on the stick at launch in ground effect?

If you do some research on kiting, you will find a good article in the BGA magazine about it.

To be pedantic, Kiting is defined as an uncontrollable pitchup and rise of the glider on tow - once it starts it happens so fast that it yanks the towplane tail up faster than the tow pilot can release. Most glass ships (due to wingloading, elevator authority, etc) appear to not be susceptible to this problem. Older light wingloading gliders are.

What the G-103 did in this accident is not kiting (technically), but just flying too high on tow (and totally the glider PIC's error) - the tow pilot should have released as soon as he reached the aft stop on the elevator. But with a Schweizer tow hook, that is damn near impossible unless it has the inverted mod.

There is also a long discussion somewhere (RAS, BGA?) about automatic releases, and the consensus was that it would be difficult to implement. Personally, I would imagine that a release triggered by hitting the aft stick stop might work, but it gets complicated on the ground, while landing, etc. Hugh potential for dropping ropes all over the place! It would have to sense the presence of a glider (tension on the rope) and the stick full aft and the towplane being airborne - then probably have to be a pyrotechnic guillotine to be reliable. Yeah, good luck getting a 337 for that past the FAA!

If a pilot pulls back on the stick that hard during launch when I'm towing, and I survive the crash, I am going to beat the **** out of him and his instructor(s) with a broken Pawnee wing strut. I've had a student pitch up in a 2-33 (solo) to do a soft release (argghhh!) and pull my Pawnee's tail up (during a pattern tow, no less). He released just before I did. He got seriously talked to after landing.

Yes, glider pilots can kill tow pilots. As a glider pilot you should think of that every time you get hooked up for a tow. And fly your tow like a damn Blue Angel!

Kirk
66

By the way, you can also give your towpilot a thrill by pulling way off to the side - and if he is stupid enough to keep full rudder in and try to fight you, you can stall his vertical stab/rudder - and off he goes into Mr Toad's wild ride as his plane loses all yaw stability all at once!

Unless I'm told the glider is going to box the wake, I pretty much keep my feet off the rudders and let the glider point me wherever he wants...