In article ,
wrote:

One of the more expert glider pilots reassured me that all first
timers have the same problems, and told me that I should concentrate
on holding the wings the same as the tug, and using the rudder to stay
behind it.

I wasn't doing it that way, I was sawing back and forth with the stick
and getting into all kinds of trouble.

I'm eager to try again, but I thought I'd drop in here and ask how
folks stayed behind the tug... If you all can remember back when you
were at my stage. ;-)

I can remember it. With zero prior flying experience, my instructor
threw me into the tow on my second flight. That was in a Blanik L13,
almost the same as you flew. I was all over the place at first but
pretty soon was able to follow the tug. But I had no idea where we
were, where the airfield was, or whetehr we were at our planned release
height yet. After a few more flights the concentration required for
following the tug decreased to the point that I had time to look at the
altimeter and notice where we were. And a while after that I had time
to look at clouds, and the vario, and figure out that maybe it was a
good money-saving idea to get off tow early in a thermal. It gets
easier and easier.

About staying behind the tug ... I don't recall ever being taught to use
the rudder for steering while on tow. It was fly coordinated with the
string in the middle at all times.

If you get off to the side, or high or low, the *important* thing is to
stop the divergence and get flying parallel to the towplane again.
Bringing it back into the middle is very much a secondary concern and
doing it gradually is fine, as long as the trend is in the right
direction. But when I bring it back into the middle I was taught to do
it using normal, coordinated turns, aileron and rudder together, but
with only a small angle of bank and you need to start turning back the
other way well before you get halfway back into position. And remember
that you don't just have to get the wings level with the tug. If you do
that then you'll be flying straight, but out towards the other side.
Say you're out to the right already flying parallel to the tug 9you've
fixed things up that much already). During getting back into line you
need to spent about 25% of your time rolling left, then 50% of the time
rolling right (25% getting wings level, then 25% starting a turn to the
right), then the final 25% rolling left to get wings-level again. Like
most of these things, once you "get" it you just do it and don't have to
think about it any more.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------