On Tue, 19 May 2009 11:45:28 +0000, Martin Gregorie wrote:

IIRC Derek Piggott has tried using a motor glider with ab initios for
basic handling and landing exercises and thought it a good idea. I can't
think of anybody else who has tried that in the UK.

Cape Gliding Club in South Africa does this. We take ab initio pupils for
about 4 off 40 min lessons in the Rotax Falke before they move onto the
K7/K13 on the winch. It provides them with some air time to get used to
the handling and co-ordination of controls. If the ridge is working we
switch off the motor and soar. Otherwise we climb to altitude, switch off
the motor and let the a/c glide down to circuit hight then re-start and
climb up for a 2nd session.

Winch flights in non thermic weather provide very little time in the air.
In the early stages the instructor has to fly both the take off and the
landing. There is very little stick time left for the pupil to make
progress. The TMG helps gets the pupils through this phase so they can
start learning take offs and landings.

We also use the TMG for cross country field selection training, and pure
TMG training. Now we are going to use it as a secondary tug too.

Ian