At 01:21 16 February 2014, Don Johnstone wrote:
At 22:39 11 February 2014, kirk.stant wrote:


Or, just teach the glider pilot to NEVER lose sight of the towplane, and
to=
immediately release if he does. =20
=20
Is it a matter of the FAA and insurance underwriters making any change
to=
the status quo cost-prohibitive? What sort of gauntlet does one need
to
r=
un?

One of the never to be breached rules of aerotowing for a glider pilot i
the UK is "if at any time you loose sight of the tug for ANY reason you
ar
to pull the release"
If you read Chris's article carefully you may deduce that in the worst
cas
scenario, the rapid vertical departure of the glider, by the time th
glider pilot realises he has lost sight of the tug, and attempts to pul
the release it is already far to late to make any significant difference
t
what is going to happen.

"Our first conclusion was that, in the event of this sequence occurring
accidentally as a result of an inadvertent pitch up by the glider pilot,
there was effectively no chance that either the glider pilot or tow-pilot
would recognise the problem and pull the release in the available time."

It was this very scenario that killed a very good friend of mine who was
very experienced tug pilot. There are some events that, paradoxically
require corrective action to commence before onset if they are to b
effective in time to change the outcome.

As for cheap solutions, I am firmly of the view that most wooden glider
with only CoG hooks should not be aerotowed, those with compromise hook
should be aerotowed with extreme care.



I would add that, although I haven't done the same tests with any glass
gliders, I'm pretty sure that many of the light-weight Standard/15m types
would behave in the same way on a C of G hook. Std Cirrus would be a prime
candidate, would somebody with access to one care to try it at safe
altitude and report the result?

What I find rather sad about the gliding movement is the lack of
willingness to go and get the facts. We have been aware of this problem
for over 35 years, I described flights tests that I carried out, to try to
improve understanding and seek a solution. Has anyone else done the same?