How many Glider Rides in one day

Any towpilot who performs over 30 tows in one day is
definately due the 'Iron Butt' award. Wow! The coordination
for such a feat had to be first class, including the
time spent for refueling the towplane. You must have
refueled at least three times, maybe four. And potty
breaks?

Amazing stuff!

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 00:30 30 October 2003, Jack wrote:
in article ,
Mark Grubb at
wrote on 2003/10/29 17:44:

I did 59 tows in 1 day during the Wind Fair at Tehachapi.

Max all time for Skylark North was, I believe, 61
on the same day by Ted
Hutter.

I am awed, and weak in the knees just thinking about
it. I'd better get this
60-year old body whipped into shape for next season.
;

You and Ted must have had some excellent cooperation
and well organized
ground handling of the gliders to keep moving at that
rate. How many people
does an operation like that take?



Jack

You and Ted must have had some excellent cooperation
and well organized ground handling of the gliders to keep moving at that
rate. How many people does an operation like that take?

At its peak, Skylark North in Tehachapi had the most professional,
highly tuned logistics of any operation I have ever seen - before or
since.

Days like the wind fair (1,500 ft tows) consisted of 3 tow planes, 6-7
ride pilots, and the most superb ground crew I have ever met. This
crew consisted of some amazing people: Mark Laciura - a videographer,
Rick Thereau - flight test engineer, Kelly Breed - photographer, and
my personal favorite, Kris Wiggs - educator and my then girlfriend and
now wife .

The flight line had the appearance of an aircraft carrier deck at full
throttle. Line crew would refill water bottles, give out wet towels,
bring food and watch you carefully for signs of impending dehydration
and general stupidity. At fuel stops they would be waiting with fuel
hose and ground wire in hand. The pilot would roll out, hit the head,
grab food & drink, check the gas cap, and strap back in.

Bluntly, we rocked!

It was some of the most fun I ever had.

I recall in my past at Lake Keepit in Australia on one Friday doing 78
tows in PA25-235 and the next Friday I broke that record and did 82
tows. We were well organised on the ground with me dropping the rope
and the next glider would be ready to go and a ground crew would hook
on the next rope onto the Pawnee. This was done around May 20 which
was just before our winter so weather was cool and we started about
7.30am and finished 5.15pm which was near last light at this time of
the year. Previous day records were all around 50 tows and we have
never gone close to that record in more recent years. I believe you
could only do this in a Pawnee as it is relaxing to fly. I recall
stopping after each 12 flights for a little rest and this all happened
in 1987 - the good old days!!
Ian McPhee
Byron Bay Australia

In article ,
(Ian McPhee) wrote:

I recall in my past at Lake Keepit in Australia on one Friday doing 78
tows in PA25-235 and the next Friday I broke that record and did 82
tows. We were well organised on the ground with me dropping the rope
and the next glider would be ready to go and a ground crew would hook
on the next rope onto the Pawnee.

This is not to you in particular, but queueing theory suggests that
maximum throughput of a queue occurs when the delay for each "customer"
in the queue approaches infinity.

So, how many gliders were typically waiting to be launched. and how long
did they have to wait?


I much prefer days like we had on Monday. There were 13 gliders in the
queue, but once they were all launched (and ten of them disappeared into
the distance) the towplane spent large amounts of time sitting on the
ground doing nothing.

-- Bruce

Summer 2002 national championshipa at Lasham. 103 gliders launched in 62
minutes ( we were trying to get it under an hour)

in article , OscarCVox at
wrote on 2003/10/31 3:33:

Summer 2002 national championshipa at Lasham. 103 gliders launched in 62
minutes ( we were trying to get it under an hour)


Interesting, but somewhat difficult to relate to without some idea of the
number of tow planes, personnel, and a description of the facilities and
process.

Still, anything like 100+ in ~1 hour is impressive.



Jack