Uvalde 1st contest day 8-11-04 #711 reporting

I see this as one of the areas that contests could improve upon. Most chief
tow pilot's think that their job is just a title that was given to the most
senior of the towpilot's. Not true. The other problem here is, towpilot's
that fly in right before launch time, and get in line without ever getting a
briefing. I flew in to one last week, but I shut down as the launch was
started already, and talked to the CD and ops manager about where the drop
zone is and what the procedures are.They know me, as I have towed there
before, but it is still the safest way to proceed. After that, I climbed in
my ship and towed. having been a ground ops manger many times, I hate to see
a guy show up, hook up, and go wallowing out at 55 knots with a glider full
of water. When are we going to wake up, after we have stalled someone into
the ground because of poor communication. WAKE UP guys, we don't need this.
I know 711 very well, he is a very good pilot, and a safety conscious one.
He released, but not all would. To all chief tow pilot's.....please
communicate and give orders, better to sound bossy than complacent!!!

BG

"Herbert Kilian" wrote in message
om...
(Andy Durbin) wrote in message
. com...
(TomnKeyLargo) wrote in message
...
The tow pilot was new, and he went straight up
on me on takeoff, I started to dangle, and whew, I released as I was
stalling.
I had enought alitude to pull landing flap which helped me nose over
and then
barely got the nose up before a tera firma landing. I had the 27 at
1102 lbs.
and even spoke with the tow pilot on the radio before accepting
launch.


One has to wonder who signs off some of these tow pilots. Glad you
survived the experience.

Andy (GY)

The answer is, of course, nobody signs them off!
Consider yourself lucky if the chief tow pilot talks to them for 5
minutes before they pick you up. I had a similar experience as
Tommy's in Cordele a couple years back. A crappy looking high-wing
something pulled up ahead of me and I thought well, this could be
interesting. Glad I remembered his call-sign because he rotated at 50
knots with my '24 still rolling at 9lb wingloading. I yelled at him
to speed up and kept telling him that all down the long Cordele
runway. I never indicated more than 59 knots when he pulled me just
over the trees at the end of the runway. He then turned and proceeded
to tow me downwind without gaining much. I released at 1,500'
something like 15 minutes later with me still shaking. I should have
pulled the release when I still had time just like Tommy did. As a
result of this drama the towpilot was relegated to only tow Sports
Class, btw...

Herb, J7