Glider crow-hops:

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 that 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.

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 them before the actual first flight. The crow-hops have helped me get used to the feel of it, operating the controls, and to get some experience in takeoff, 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 glider that I own. For various reasons I can't let anyone else fly it first to 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 actual first flights in it. They would be by auto-tow, on a 5000' runway, accelerating 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-brakes, and landing straight ahead. Of course I would be using a driver who knows about glider towing issues and would get out of the way.

Any thoughts or comments about this idea?

Thanks in advance,
Jerry Booker