On Nov 19, 9:27 am, Mike Lindsay wrote:
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At our club the then chief flying instructor asked me, as tuggie, to do
a rudder waggle when he was doing annual revalidations. Three out of the
four pilots doing their annual checks released. That was two years ago.

These days, when you do your annual, you are asked about the signals
before you go.

One of the signals is that the glider "flies out to the left as far as
possible and rocks the wings laterally" The meaning is that the glider
cant let the rope go.

What happens then?

In my recent experience of pracsing giving the signal, absolutely
nothing most of the time. The same when when the instructor flew out
to the left and gave the signal.


We never practice descending on tow.

I have. I was surprised how easy it was.


I asked our
resident instructor, he said the tug should continue climbing and
position the glider in a good place to make a safe landing.

I wonder what other people do in the event that the glider cant release?

I was told that the tug takes you back to where you can safely get
back to the field (quite possibly descending en-route), and releases
you. You land normally but using a reference point well inside the
field because of the tow rope dangling from the glider.