2 recent incidents

On Jun 26, 9:12*am, Marc Ramsey wrote:
jb92563 wrote:
It takes a bit of time to learn and mistakes WILL be made but that is
no reason to throw out the
standard signals becasue of a few.

Rudder waggle wasn't a standard signal when I learned. *During my first
decade of flying (70s), rudder waggle was commonly used by tow pilots
with newbies (like myself) to suggest a point of release.

Of the 10,000+ glider pilots I am sure only a couple dozen have
released on rudder waggles.

I've done it, and I knew (in theory, anyway, what the signal was
supposed to mean). *Grob 103, spoiler not properly secured at takeoff
(my bad), spoilers crept open during climb out, no dramatic sounds,
buffeting, etc. *I could tell the tow wasn't going right as we tuned at
about 300 feet, continued slow climb rate as the tow pilot made a big
sweeping back towards the airport. *When we got back over the airport at
1000 ft, he wagged the rudder, and I, fulling expecting to be rocked off
at any moment, pulled the release. *The tow plane shot up like a rocket,
a light bulb lit up in my brain, and I looked back to see the spoilers
hanging out in the breeze. *I think it clear what would have happened
had I been wagged at 300 feet.

Thats 0.24%, and completely insignificant justification to change
anything but the rigor of those few pilots training who are
having problems.

I bet it's a lot more than 0.24%, I know of more than one tow pilot that
is very careful where they use this signal, from experience.

We should start a thread on Pilot Mistakes, and you can be sure there
will be 1000 hr pilots making entires there as well.

I had 1200 hours at the time.

Marc

Thanks Marc for sharing your experience. I think we all capable of
making this mistake, even if we will practice the rudder waggle every
BFR. Even instructors can get it wrong, we just lost one couple of
years ago at Minden for the exact same thing. What concerns me as you
can see from the thread is that many don't think it is an issue, and I
am sure many tow pilots are not aware of the risk as well. Also I am
still amazed to find tow planes without operating radio. This should
not be allowed.

Ramy