Tost release failure

On 8/24/2012 11:25 AM, kirk.stant wrote:
Finally! I've been refusing to do release checks for years and get the
stink-eye everytime. I've tried explaining that if you can hook up, then
you have checked as much as you can, but still get people saying "but what
if it fails?".

Maybe one of you smart guys out there can explain the logic of a separate
release check?

Kirk 66


The only rationale I was ever able to generate was that functioning under
tension might somehow reveal a difference compared to "dry firing." (Yeah, I
thought the rationale weak!)

That said, when connecting someone I always offer to perform a release check
"because it's generally expected I do so"...and have no issue with pilots
declining the offer (there are a few!).

Happily, with first an HP-14 and then a Zuni, I had my own built-in
excuse to NOT perform a release check, since both types have Dick Schreder's
(dirt simple) retracting design which generally requires verbal hand-holding
from Joe Pilot in order simply to make the connection, even *after* I'd
pre-positioned the release from its retracted position. My rationale with the
Schreder release is it's safer simply to connect and launch then to increase
exposure time on an active runway fiddling *twice* with "a funky release."

Maybe release checks are like your mother's reminders to always wear clean
underwear in case you have a serious accident. What the heck difference does
it make?!? Can you prove it? :-)

Bob - has never contributed to thread creep! - W.