By now, most people are bored with this thread, so I expect few will
get to this post. I generally avoid posting to RAS because of the
hostile responses / postings.

In this case, the demonstrable thesis that most glider pilots do not
have the knowledge to fly safely is generally supported by the
postings to date.

There is only one bottom line to aviation knowledge, and that is the
demonstrated safety record. In our case, there are no reliable
statistics save one: the fatality rate. Glider fatalities are reported
most of the time (not all.) Simply dividing the number of fatalities
into the membership gives a fatality rate that can be compared with
other activities. The NTSB has web sites listing comparisons of
fatality rates for many activities. Gliding is the worst of all. There
will be several postings to quibble with this last statement, but it
is true if you care to look it up.

It is also true that we have been teaching people to fly for 44 years,
and no one we taught as died. Last year we had an experienced power
pilot who we transitioned to gliders who had a seizure and we did do
his transition training.

So we are doing something right. That something, is to teach
everything stated in the FARs, to the standard implied by the PTS.
Nothing more, nothing less.

When it comes to specifics, the legal system punishes those who do not
comply with the standard, so we ensure everything we teach is correct.
We have been successful and we have a lot to lose if we do it wrong.

In the early days, we enlisted famous people like Wolfgang
Langeweische and Derek Piggott to help us. Both came to our gliderport
several times. We will long remember the discussions. Many other very
experienced instructors also helped, and of course we used every
reference to establish standards still used today.

You can see the differences of opinions in the details of this thread.
If you ask specific questions on even the simplest subjects, you will
get many firmly held opinions.

So, anyway, I don’t have the time to get involved with the discussions
in this newsgroup. Most everything I know, I have written in books and
articles, and made presentations at SSA conventions, seminars and FAA
Glider CFI Revalidation Clinics, which I started many years ago.

For those of you who made it this far, I figure you deserve answers to
the three questions.

During a steep left turn, how are the controls held?

Right aileron to counteract the overbanking tendency.
Left Rudder in the direction of the turn. (A paragraph or two is
required to explain this, but the right wing in this case is creating
more drag and the tail needs to be slightly outside the arc of the
turn as the CG is exactly on the arc.)
Back stick pressure. The glider weighs more in a turn, and the center
of mass is ahead of the center of lift.

During a left turn on aerotow, the glider pilot should see the left
side of the towplane’s fuselage. The suggested analogy of sitting in
an aft car of a railroad train during a turn is a good mental image.

Finally, what color field is most desirable on an off field landing?

The answer as so often happens is – “It depends.”

But, if you had to pick one answer, it would be the color of the
earth. There is an adage stated as, “You won’t get hurt if you land it
dirt.”

However, this does not mean a freshly plowed field, which has deep
furrows, rocks and giant clods of hard earth.

You want a freshly cultivated field that has been plowed, harrowed and
the rocks have been removed for generations.

In some parts of the planet, this is not possible. It never happens,
so you must go to plan B.

Freshly harvested fields usually have one major problem. Time has gone
by and animals have dug landing gear burrows in the ground just
waiting for the next glider landing gear. Erosion can also be a
problem.

Some crops are planted in nice earth color, but on top of prepared
mounds. You must be familiar with the farming practices of your local
area to choose wisely.

In the NE USA, farmers have an adage, “Knee high by the 4th of July.”
This means corn should be this high by the 4th if the crop is to be a
good one. For glider pilots, it means you generally can no longer land
in a fresh corn field. The good news, is the alfalfa crop is being
harvested about this same time, by then animal holes are a high risk.

Well, there is a lot more to this subject and Doris is taking me to
see fireworks. I suppose I omitted something important in the above,
and I am equally sure there will be some who will blast away as that
seems to be the tenure of the medium. I probably won’t respond.

Frankly, everything you need to know to fly safely has been written. A
small library would include excellent books by Derek Piggott, Wolfgang
Langeweische, Anne & Lorne Welch and others. For those of you who
abhor self-promotion in this forum, I’ll avoid telling you my books
have everything required by the FAA flight training requirements, have
been described as “the best training manuals of any kind,” and are
easy to read and understand. I also won’t mention you can find them on
our web site: www.eglider.org

At the bottom of our web site you will find links to several flight
safety newsletters I have written over recent years. They are free!

Happy fourth of July!!!

Tom Knauff
http://www.eglider.org