Using Plasma Rope For Winch Tows

Chris Reed wrote:
...
In my experience the K8 pitch-up was near uncontrollable when winching. If
you had winched it previously you learnt the theoretically correct
procedure, which was:

a. Stick back to get the nose skid up.

b. Stick central to run on the main wheel; and then

c. (*Immediately the main wheel left the ground) Knuckles hard into the
instrument panel and wait for the pitch to become controllable.


I have no experience with the K8, but the general procedure
I learnt for any glider is: stick full forward *before* start.
I don't know if this will prevent the nose skid of a K8 to lift,
but it doesn't prevent the nose wheel of a K21 to lift. At the
very beginning of the launch, the aerodynamic forces are weak
compared to the inertial forces (accelaration near 1g implies
inertial forces have the same order of magnitude as the weight
of the glider), so when acceleration just begins, the main forces
are the cable traction and the inertial force at CG, making
a pitching up moment. If later the aerodynamic force due to
the elevator becomes sufficient to override this moment, it
is now time to pull the stick avoiding a nose drop.