Glider crow-hops:

At 12:47 23 August 2012, J-Soar wrote:
I am a newly soloed student pilot, still flying the club's 2-seat
trainer.
=
I'll be moving to the club's single-seater soon. Then I hope to
be allowed
=
by my instructor to make solo flights in my own mid-
performance sailplane
t=
hat I bought before starting glider lessons. It was flown by
advanced solo
=
students at a far-away club, so should be OK for me to fly.
=20
I have built and flown a number of powered ultralights over the
years,
some=
of my own design, and have always started out doing lots of
crow-hops in
t=
hem before the actual first flight. The crow-hops have helped
me get used
t=
o the feel of it, operating the controls, and to get some
experience in
tak=
eoff, touchdown, roll out, and dealing with mild cross winds,
before
taking=
on the whole flight and it's associated risks.

My instructor, nor any one around, have had experience in the
particular
gl=
ider that I own. For various reasons I can't let anyone else fly
it first
t=
o advise me about how to fly it. So no help there.

So I'm thinking that doing crow-hops in it might be a good idea
before my
a=
ctual first flights in it. They would be by auto-tow, on a 5000'
runway,
ac=
celerating quickly to the normal touch down speed of the
glider, getting
no=
more than 3 feet high. Then right away releasing, pulling on
the
air-brake=
s, and landing straight ahead. Of course I would be using a
driver who
know=
s about glider towing issues and would get out of the way.

Any thoughts or comments about this idea?

Thanks in advance,
Jerry Booker


I'm a low hours solo pilot too, so my advice is limited (and
caveated) but:
1. Read the aircraft's manual;
2. Post again stating the glider type so that pilots with
experience in it can give you good advice;
3. Fiddling with the airbrakes near the ground when new on type
is not a very good idea and could lead to more excitement than
you'd probably want...