Aerotow rope drogue chute?

we don't cut ours in half, we use the whole ball, drilling holes at the
"poles" to thread the safety link through, or higher up the rope above the
"safety to rope" connection.

The balls out here in the desert south west can last about 100 launches,
landings are the roughest on it, dragging it over the ground at 60knts or
less, we don't drop the rope on landing, but leave it attached to the tug
and either back taxi if the landing was long, or just pull up for the next
tow. What a difference a 5knt headwind makes on the landing distance
required.


BT
"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:3fd4e9c8$1@darkstar...
What is a wiffle ball made of and what size is it and
how long do they last on the end of tow ropes?

John Galloway


It's a little hollow plastic ball about the size of
an orange or softball which has a bunch of holes
through it to make it even less aerodynamic. Kids
buy them with a plastic bat and can hit the ball as hard
as they want and it only goes about 5 feet (that's
about 1.6 meters for you international chaps).

Buy a set for your kids, and when they get tired of
it, cut the balls in half and put them on the end of
the tow rope. The bat is useless for the tow
pilot, but I've seen instructors use them to help
improve student progress ;-P

They last I dunno, maybe hundreds of tows? I guess
it depends on cement vs. dirt runways...

John Galloway wrote in message ...
I have a vague recollection that a while back someone
mentioned in passing that their club used a little
drougue chute near the glider end of the aerotow rope
to fly the rings higher during approach and landing.
Does that ring any bells? If so I would appreciate
some information - or did I just imagine it?

You could use the wiffle balls, they are still manufactured, but
here's what I've used when I ran out of wiffle balls;
take your imported water bottle, like the 16oz size, not the liter
size, and cut off the bottom half. Put the rope through the neck, and
the tost rings will retract into the top of the bottle, preventing
them from dragging down the runway. A proper water bottle will "fly"
like the wiffle ball, and there's always a fresh supply around. Warn
your friends with nose-pitot like libelle, no airspeed on tow.
The ball or bottle will last forever on turf, one or two trips through
the barbed wire fence, and for awhile on tarmac.
There's also retractable towrope systems, with pros & cons.
-Dan

"W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.)." wrote in message
...
I agree completely with David Starer about what pupils ought to do, and
what
to do about it if they don't.

c. As soon as the cable is seen to release start the climbing turn, and
look again to make sure it is safe to continue the turn.

It is important that the turn is not started with the rope still attached
(this has been known, tug pilots don't like it!).


The BGA are now teaching instructors on Assistant Cat courses to climb away
from the tug without turning. This was reported by someone at my club who
did a course recently. Unfortunately I can't remember the reason for the
change.

Stephen

Are you sure there has not been a misunderstanding?

Which club is this, where was the Assistant Cat course and who was the
coach?

For the U.K. the B.G.A. give advice to be found in "Laws and Rules for
Glider Pilots" 14th edition June 2003:

Under "Recommended Practices":

"RP13. After releasing the cable, the glider should turn away so that the
tug aircraft pilot can see clearly that the glider is free."

If you can find out the reason given I should very much like to hear it,
since it contradicts the BGA's own recommended practice published just 6
months ago. If there has been a change in doctrine since then I have not
heard about it.

Apart from other considerations, it is normal to release in order to join a
thermal, failing to turn at once could easily lose you the thermal.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.


"Stephen Cook" ] wrote in message
...


"W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.)." wrote in message
...

I agree completely with David Starer about what pupils ought to do, and
what to do about it if they don't.

c. As soon as the cable is seen to release start the climbing turn,
and look again to make sure it is safe to continue the turn.

It is important that the turn is not started with the rope still
attached (this has been known, tug pilots don't like it!).


The BGA are now teaching instructors on Assistant Cat courses to climb
away from the tug without turning. This was reported by someone at my
club who did a course recently. Unfortunately I can't remember the
reason for the change.

Stephen

Bill,

The emphasis of the exercise being taught is that it
is not necessary to turn away from the tug. All that
is required is to gently decelerate the glider by gently
climbing the glider as the tug will accelerate away.
This was demonstrated by both Dave Bullock and Simon
Adlard on assistant cat courses at Bicester some 3
years ago.
The emphasis on turning is not always practical particularly
if one has been towed close to a ridge e.g. both aircraft
would require to turn away from the ridge - if the
glider remains straight on course the tug turning away
will result in divergence of both rope and glider.
Suggest that if you want to discuss this further that
you should contact either of the National Coaches to
determine the exact reasoning for this teaching.

SRE Scotland & Borders

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Bill,

The emphasis of the exercise being taught is that it
is not necessary to turn away from the tug. All that
is required is to gently decelerate the glider by gently
climbing the glider as the tug will accelerate away.
This was demonstrated by both Dave Bullock and Simon
Adlard on assistant cat courses at Bicester some 3
years ago.
The emphasis on turning is not always practical particularly
if one has been towed close to a ridge e.g. both aircraft
would require to turn away from the ridge - if the
glider remains straight on course the tug turning away
will result in divergence of both rope and glider.
Suggest that if you want to discuss this further that
you should contact either of the National Coaches to
determine the exact reasoning for this teaching.

SRE Scotland & Borders


Thanks for this John. I was going to get in touch with the person on the
course before replying to Bill's post.

If this has been the recommended method for three years why hasn't it
reached the rest of us? Our Chief Flying Instructor makes an effort to get
recently qualified instructors to pass on what they have learnt, but there
should be a more direct route than this. This isn't the only change to
instructional technique that I have found out about on the grapevine. Why
isn't there an instructors newsletter?

Stephen

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Bill,

The emphasis of the exercise being taught is that it
is not necessary to turn away from the tug. All that
is required is to gently decelerate the glider by gently
climbing the glider as the tug will accelerate away.
This was demonstrated by both Dave Bullock and Simon
Adlard on assistant cat courses at Bicester some 3
years ago.
The emphasis on turning is not always practical particularly
if one has been towed close to a ridge e.g. both aircraft
would require to turn away from the ridge

Other situations also come to mind, for example, traffic or cloud
clearance issues may make a turn a bad option. Also it should be stressed
that turns after a waveoff depend on the situation; first, it is important
to allow the towplane the most direct path to the runway (assume that he
really has an emergency) and second, the glider itself may not want to turn
away from the runway if it was a low waveoff.

Vaughn

The release without turning is not a recommended method as such and does =
not replace a (climbing?) turn where local club rules require that the =
glider turn in a specific direction after tow. The aim , I believe, is =
to show that a highly banked and fast climbing turn is not required as =
it is this scenario that causes tug upsets when the glider pilot has not =
ensured that the tow rope has actually released prior to initiating the =
turn. As a tug pilot myself I know which method of release that I would =
prefer particularly if the rope hangs up on the glider. If the club =
rules specify a particular direction of turn this may be due to the =
position of the mirror on the tug or for other similar visibility =
reasons. This exercise shows that after the rope is released a gentle =
climb is all that is required to achieve separation. It can be combined =
with a turn in either direction.

We don't teach climbing turns on release because of setting up the habit of
slowing down after the release. If the rope breaks, you need that airspeed
to make the turn back to the field. If you get in the habit of climbing,
you will always climb and slow down.

Fred