Graeme Cant wrote:

Well, I speak only from my experience, not from a book, no matter how
eminent the author, and ... it's not MY experience. Clearly it's also
not Bill Daniels' and several others. I note what you say about your
experience and I'll learn from it.

I suspect that our experience of pitch effect on speed is not really
that different. Neither of us has defined the conditions in sufficient
detail. I think it's true to say that for any winch that is capable of
maintaining constant tow line speed, pitching the glider up will result
in an increase in airspeed. It is also true to say that continuous
pitch up will not result in a continuous increase in airspeed. Either
the winch has insufficient power to maintain line speed, or the tension
limiter reduces line speed, or the glider weak link breaks. So I
believe there is a cross over point for underpowered or tension
controlled winches. For pitch/speed below the cross over point,
increasing pitch results in increasing speed. Above the cross over
point the reverse is true. For a tension and speed controlled winch I
suspect that the cross over point is early in the launch and before the
glider has established normal climb attitude.

Thanks for the update on "Gliding". You are right, he didn't tell me
he'd changed the text


Andy