A new experience

Interesting thread. When I was preparing for my practical, I had one
instructor tell me to climb above the tow plane before releasing for
some extra altitude. I didn't like that idea (is 20 feet really this
important?), but wasn't really sure why. I asked my regular
instructor about it a few days later and he advised against it. After
reading this thread it's pretty clear now why it is not such a good
idea.

On Dec 26, 6:28*pm, Andy wrote:
I've been towing for quite a few years but had a new experience today.
I was towing a pilot new to the Std Cirrus, and who had never towed on
a CG hook before. *I expected an "interesting" ride, but he did fine.
That is until release time. *I looked in the mirror to see him pull up
into a hard right turn and thought, there's something wrong here!
Sure enough I looked over my shoulder to see the belly if the Cirrus
and the rope still attached.

I called "release, release, release", as the tail of the Pawnee was
pulled up. *The rope back released off the CG hook before the upset
became too significant.

Before I started the launch I had said to him "If you lose sight of
the tow plane you will release". I didn't even think about that after
we had safely climbed the first 500 feet.

As you can image we spoke on the ground about visually verifying rope
release.

Andy

had the opposite thing happen to me once. I was on tow with a new tow
pilot.
On tow in turbulence the tow pilot felt slack on the rope so he rolled
and pulled down to the left, almost a split S. He reailzed his
mistake and rolled back to the right and climbed back up right in
front of me. I was able to get it all gathered up and get back into
position. I would have released but we he had taken me way out way
too low. We didn't have radios and he didn't respond to my steering
atempts to keep us closer to the airport.
It was an interesting ride and we had a talk after I got back.
I was not the only person to "talk" to him, I never saw him at the
gliderport again.

Dan
WO