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 skys). 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 CONTROLLS AIRSPEED ON THE TOW. PULL BACK TO GO FASTER. PUSH FORWARD TO SLOW DOWN. Climb speed is 63 mph 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 45degree 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, themselves, 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!!!!! Sorry for the “repeat” of an old newsletter folks but according to that last sentence of “ALWAYS GET PROPER TRAINING” I am presently preparing myself for MD-80 Captain school next week. I also have only been studying and reading glider stuff to prepare my brain to take the CFI - Glider written exam. As stated at the January 2002 EAA Chapter meeting I hope to be able to give those interested in a Glider flight the oppurtunity this summer. More on this later after I finish the schooling required for my “day” job.

Q- What type of “air” is put in the tires of bigger airplanes? Nitrogen at 175psi.

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