Compare/Contrast: CG hook on aerotow vs. CG hook on winch

On 5/25/2012 7:31 AM, Bill D wrote:
On May 24, 10:18 pm, Eric wrote:
On 5/24/2012 7:54 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:

No, and I suggest it may make you worse at aerotowing, because you learn
to put the glider in a steep climb. "Kiting" on tow is a bad problem;
"kiting" during a winch launch is normal operation.

A pilot would have to be pretty stupid to let that happen. (Learning
is where you ADD knowledge - not replace what was already there.)
Learn winch launch - you WILL become a better pilot.

Stupid, or poorly trained, or confused in an emergency. Still, I'm not
aware that learning winch launching in any way prepares you for aero
tow. The attitude and sight picture is entirely different, and you
aren't flying formation. I've done mostly aerotows and some auto tows,
and my experience was handling the glider took a different set of
skills. A notable difference is the auto launch was easier as long as
every thing went right - it took far less corrections compared to the
aero tow.

Learning to do winch launches so you are capable of doing winch launches
is an excellent reason, but I think it's a waste of time if your goal is
learning to do aerotow with a CG hook. The winch launch simply doesn't
challenge the pilot in the same way a CG hook aero tow does.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

Originally Posted by Eric Greenwell[_4_]

On 5/25/2012 7:31 AM, Bill D wrote:
On May 24, 10:18 pm, Eric wrote:
On 5/24/2012 7:54 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:

No, and I suggest it may make you worse at aerotowing, because you learn
to put the glider in a steep climb. "Kiting" on tow is a bad problem;
"kiting" during a winch launch is normal operation.

A pilot would have to be pretty stupid to let that happen. (Learning
is where you ADD knowledge - not replace what was already there.)
Learn winch launch - you WILL become a better pilot.

Stupid, or poorly trained, or confused in an emergency. Still, I'm not
aware that learning winch launching in any way prepares you for aero
tow. The attitude and sight picture is entirely different, and you
aren't flying formation. I've done mostly aerotows and some auto tows,
and my experience was handling the glider took a different set of
skills. A notable difference is the auto launch was easier as long as
every thing went right - it took far less corrections compared to the
aero tow.

Learning to do winch launches so you are capable of doing winch launches
is an excellent reason, but I think it's a waste of time if your goal is
learning to do aerotow with a CG hook. The winch launch simply doesn't
challenge the pilot in the same way a CG hook aero tow does.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

Agree. About the only thing winching could teach you, that you could take to aerotow, is a strong pull on the cable attached to the belly hook will tend to pitch the nose up.

With that small caveat I don't think that anything you learn from winch launching can prepare you for learning aerotow (tethered formation flying) from either a belly or a nose hook

Cheers
Colin