Wing Drop, Aerotow vs Winch, Grass vs Pavement.

On Monday, March 22, 2021 at 6:57:59 PM UTC-6, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Mon, 22 Mar 2021 17:41:30 -0700, waremark wrote:


At my club we try to emphasise that the wing runner should not allow the
launch to start if there is a significant up or down force on the
wingtip.

Same at my club. In addition, if there's a cross wind for a winch launch
and the pilot is using aileron to hold the downwind tip up rather than
leaving the stick central while the wing runner moves the tip up or down
to zero the force he's feeling, the wing runner is encouraged to stop the
launch until the stick is centralised.

This is safer because the pilot can't feel what the up- or down-force of
the wingtip is - only the wing runner knows that. And so, if the
balancing is left to the pilot, the chances of an immediate tip drop is
raised.
Someone mentioned water ballast - I think that is very significant, as a
low wing allows water to flow towards the tip and make that wing
heavier, making recovery less likely.

Agreed.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Good point about wing runners. What I teach wing runners is if the wing wants to go up, to let it go up as high as you can reach. If it goes low, let it go as low as is practical, as this will signal the pilot to put the correct input in to correct for wing low or wing high condition.

Brian