Hello gang! In January I was able to attend a
glider camp that dealt with winch tow gliding. It is held each year at
Bermuda High Soaring in Lancaster, SC, which is a one hour drive south
of Charlotte, NC. After a smooth DC-9 flight to Charlotte, I drove into
Lancaster late at night and awoke to ceilings of 100 foot overcast and
visibility of ¼ mile. Oh well at least I would get to touch some
sailplanes. I met with Jane and Frank Reid (owners of the club) when I
drove up. We sat and exchanged lies for about two hours. Then I went through
the ground school course. I was quickly hammered on why I had not flown
gliders for the last 14 years. (I had flown, but I was always sitting in
the back seat while my old college roommate searched for lift in the Arizona
skies). By noon the visibility was definitely 3 miles and the ceilings
looked “up”. I asked what the ceiling height was and the reply back was
“you are current with instrument flying aren't you?” I said “YES I AM!”
So they moved the V-8 engine/batting cage/trailered device that would take
up the 4,000 foot tow cable to the upwind end of this field. Frank and
I dragged the Schweizer 2-33 training glider to the other end. The tow
cable was brought to us from the other end of this beautiful 4,000 foot
long by 150 wide PRIVATE GRASS STRIP by some guy in a pickum-up truck.
He attached the cable (twice- you always check the RELEASE HANDLE on the
first flight) then moved his truck. He talked into a walkie- talkie sayin’,
“ SLACK…. SLACK…STOP”.
With my thumbs up he raised the wing and said
GO! YEEEEAAAAHHHHAAA! The tail of the glider hit first because of the quick,
but smooth pull of the winch. Next the nose started to drop down and within
this time (1. 5 seconds) we were moving 40mph which is flying speed. So
you smoothly PULL BACK ON THE CONTROL STICK TO INCREASE YOUR  AIRSPEED
AS YOU RAISE THE NOSE UP TO 45 DEGREES. PITCH CONTROLS AIRSPEED ON THE
TOW. PULL BACK TO GO FASTER. PUSH FORWARD TO SLOW DOWN. Climb speed is
63 m.p.h. so you control the pitch by watching the airspeed because the
view out the front window is nothing but SKY! . As you start to arc over
the winch operator slows the engine down so as you fly over the winch the
cable goes slack and you can hear the “click” in your hook mechanism. This
is the time you pull the release and let the cable fall. Thus the reason
for the batting cage. A right 45 degree turn to set up the cross-wind leg
with a turn so as to land downwind right where you took off from. The whole
event is over in two minutes. Turn the glider around and here comes that
pickum-up truck again. I took seven tows with the last one being my sign-off
for winch towing. I had missed the class last year and I learned the value
of flying with TRAINED PROFESSIONALS after reading a great story in the
January issue of SOARING. Two individuals had a winch, them-selves, and
no clue what they were doing. One was a Commercial glider pilot, the other
a glider flight instructor. One guy in the glider and one guy in the winch
to run the engine. What could go wrong? Their briefing was if the glider
is low on the tow, the winch operator will just speed up the engine. Well
long story short, the winch operator saw that the glider was low so he
gave the engine more throttle. Seconds later seeing his buddy still 50
feet off the deck the winch operator just floored the now screaming and
smoking engine of the winch tow. The winch operator started to realize
that this batting cage device was not going to protect him should this
now screaming engine let loose so he jumped out of the batting cage device.
He watched the glider go flying overhead. After the glider returned to
the field our pilot had a few choice words for the winch operator. It seems
that the glider was going so fast that the pilot could not release and
land safely in the remaining distance of runway. All he could do is get
the most speed and try to fly some sort of traffic pattern and return to
the field. I am sure Orville and Wilbur were laughing at these two guys
from up above! ALWAYS GET PROPER TRAINING!!!!!
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