Attracting the kids

On Aug 15, 10:26 pm, Dan G wrote:
On Aug 15, 8:13 pm, Tom Gardner wrote:

The K13s benefits do have to be "explained" to adult trial flighters
and potential
members; the DG505 doesn't have that image problem. The club is
solving
that by ordering a couple of PW-6Us to replace a couple of the K13s.

Aston Down.

Just so, but the actual club is, of course, only of passing
relevance in this thread.

At first I thought they were mad, as they charge quite
steep fees, but then thought about it some more and read about
Lasham's experiences with the DG1000s

I'll leave that judgement to history and to those that
are more experienced than I am

All I'll say is that flying the Lasham DG1000 on my second
day (flights 5-7 was delightful, particularly the aerotow to
1000' above the Cu cloudbase followed by surfing the suds.
OTOH, acting as ballast in a K13 for an impromptu 60 min
"joyride" on flight 4 was also eye-opening.

Both K13s and DGxxxs are delightful; it is what you do
with them that creates the indelible memories. Plus, of
course, the flavour of the club and its members.

But, to return to the thread; as I intimated, I suspect the
rollercoaster of a winch launch is a better way of getting
kids hooked than a rather sedate aerotow.

tom gardner

Tom Gardner wrote:

But, to return to the thread; as I intimated, I suspect the
rollercoaster of a winch launch is a better way of getting
kids hooked than a rather sedate aerotow.

I thoroughly agree. Its bad news for amusement park operators, though -
their rides are rather unimpressive once you're used to winching.

I soloed on a winch. My only pre-solo aero-tow was the spin demo flight:
we managed to find thermals when we needed them for my actual spin
training. From my early aero tows I got the distinct impression that
winching is easier for the early ab initio than aero towing, simply
because most gliders are stable on the wire once they're established in
the climb while staying behind the tug is HARD while your handling
skills are still developing.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Aug 16, 1:00 pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
I thoroughly agree. Its bad news for amusement park operators, though -
their rides are rather unimpressive once you're used to winching.

grin

Yes, I've used the "you just sit there and have something
done to you" argument too, and it *is* working. On Saturday
I took my daughter on a ride that whirled you around from 5'
to maybe 100' and flipped you upside down occasionally.
She thought it wasn't worth the £5.

I've also tried to dissuade her from flying; since she's had
the experience of spins, loops, chandelles, there's clearly
nothing left for her to do. That *isn't* working.

tom gardner

Martin Gregorie wrote:
I soloed on a winch. My only pre-solo aero-tow was the spin demo flight:
we managed to find thermals when we needed them for my actual spin
training. From my early aero tows I got the distinct impression that
winching is easier for the early ab initio than aero towing, simply
because most gliders are stable on the wire once they're established in
the climb while staying behind the tug is HARD while your handling
skills are still developing.

I have never winched but that sounds right to me. Learning the tow was the
most difficult phsyical task (as opposed to things like landing where it's
mostly mental effort) of the whole thing. Although I managed to fly a
large portion of the tow on my second flight, I'm informed that this is
abnormal, and it took many more flights to become comfortable with it.
Even post-solo, having transitioned to single-place gliders and with 40-50
flights under my belt, I went through a period about a month or two long
where I felt uncomfortable under tow and really looked forward to reaching
release altitude so I wouldn't have to do it anymore.

I'm all better now, tow is a piece of cake and as fun as any other routine
part of a flight, but it was definitely tough to learn and I can see why
winching would be much easier.

As for danger, we have enough open fields around our airport that I'm
confident of a safe outcome of basically any tow emergency. The only time
I got particularly worried was flying a fully loaded Grob 103 on a very
hot and humid day behind a tow pilot who didn't feel like climbing near
the airport before heading out. Being unusually low and distant from the
airport made me sweat, but some quick mental arithmetic confirmed that the
Grob's 37:1 glide ratio kept us well within safe distance of the field the
whole way up, so I never tried to get him to turn around.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

Michael Ash wrote:
As for danger, we have enough open fields around our airport that I'm
confident of a safe outcome of basically any tow emergency.

Likewise, on my home field, which also has a lot of open, flat fields
round it.

I'm happy about winch launch failures at home - the winch is always on
the end of a wide enough run so landing ahead from a low failure is
never a problem. I've never flown at a site with the winch placed off in
the boonies but I do wonder if that sort of layout can make low breaks
somewhat problematic. I'd be interested to hear peoples experiences of
launch failures with this winch placement.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |