Low towing thought

Nyal Williams wrote:
Properly done, boxing the wake begins by a descent
through the wake, a box around the wake, and then an
ascent back up through the wake. This shows the student
the extremes of where one can go safely on tow.

Sometimes I think the main problem of the increasing age of glider
pilots is the growing level of dogmatism.

GC

Graeme Cant wrote:
Nyal Williams wrote:
Properly done, boxing the wake begins by a descent
through the wake, a box around the wake, and then an
ascent back up through the wake. This shows the student
the extremes of where one can go safely on tow.

Sometimes I think the main problem of the increasing age of glider
pilots is the growing level of dogmatism.


Do you find standardization of training and checking to have no value?


Jack

47Dodge wrote:
Graeme Cant wrote:
Nyal Williams wrote:
Properly done, boxing the wake begins by...

Sometimes I think the main problem of the increasing age of glider
pilots is the growing level of dogmatism.

Do you find standardization of training and checking to have no value?

On the contrary - up to a certain point - but what has that to do with
the dogmatic statement "Properly done..."?

On whose authority? Who's Nyall to lay down the law using words like
"properly done..."? Is this some tinpot foreign standard?

His description of boxing the wake is nothing like the normal way it's
done. How, for example, can you begin by descending through the wake
when you're already in low tow? When I check the Instructor's Manual, I
find I'm teaching what's normal...and proper... and it contains no climb
or descent through the wake.

As I said to Tom, it's an interesting variation which clearly has some
value and I'm going to use it with students and see how it goes, but in
my neck of the woods it would be completely non-standard and IMproper.

It may just be Nyall's parochialism but it comes over as dogmatism.

GC

Jack

Sorry, Graeme, I just can't resist:

On Mar 9, 7:01 am, Graeme Cant wrote:

Sometimes I think the main problem of the increasing age of glider
pilots is the growing level of dogmatism.

And then two days later...

His [Nyal's] description of boxing the wake is nothing like the normal way it's
done.

Actually, I agree with you (at least I think so). I, too, tend to
think the way I do things is "normal." But I also understand your
point that what's "normal" for one operation (e.g., high tow) may not
be for another. Some of it is local custom. Some of it probably is
narrowmindedness or dogma. And a lot of it is the difficulty of
communicating sometimes-complex ideas in a few words on this forum; we
occasionally use a word such as "normal" that we would hasten to
correct if we were talking face-to-face and we saw someone's eyebrow
go up in response.

This thread is a good reminder to me that after 40+ years in soaring,
I must still be openminded, albeit careful, when someone shows me
something I haven't seen before that works at least as well, sometimes
better. I still prefer high tow most of the time, especially when
launching with a lot of ballast. When at constant altitude or
descending (e.g., on aero retrieve), I MUCH prefer low tow. I'm not a
tug pilot so my perspective is limited.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"