T8 wrote:
On Dec 29, 9:24*am, Andy wrote:
On Dec 29, 6:55*am, Bruno wrote:

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with *a very
experienced pilot (older) who has spent a lot of time in some amazing
aircraft starting with the P51 Mustang and going up to jets including
the SR-71 blackbird and as we were looking over my glider we started
talking about the yaw string on the canopy.

He then mentioned that way back in the early days of flying they would
simply tape a string hanging from the ceiling to act as an artificial
horizon. *I've never heard this one before! *Next person who reads
this who goes up tape a string hanging from the inside of the canopy
and tell us how it works. *Now you have another reason to take off
work and go soaring.

Bruno -B4http://www.youtube.com/user/bviv

It's not April 1 already is it?

Just put a mark on your canopy and spit at it. If spit flies left of
target, you are turning right and vice versa.

-T8

Just slighly more accurate than spit, Bruce Miller taught me as a 13
year old at Black Forest to tie a string to the release knob (or
anywhere in your field of vision) with a light little weight on the
end)

Looks stupid and mainly created questions till one day I was stupid
enough to allow myself to be towed up through a hole in the stratus
layer by a dumber tow pilot.

You already guessed it. Released, climbed through 14K in wave @ 500
fpm. Hole in the layer quickly closed. Trapped VFR on top.

The tow pilot had flown far upwind in strong winds to get down. I
couldn't fly that far and stay out of the soup. The peak of 9,000 foot
Mount Stuart had now disappeared below and the and the airport down
there somewhere was reporting only 1,1000 foot cealings.

Within ten minutes, I did not know where I was. I think perhaps wo
things saved me.

Cindy Brickner's practice lesson a decade before returning from FL250.
Trim for a speed. Take your hands off the controls and let the
aircraft find a benign spiral down observing what the turbulence does
and how the glider always finds its left decending turn again.

The other reassuring thing was that stupid little string hanging there
told me what was straight up and down, when my senses said we were
banked and slipping or skidding. At higher speeds it was all over the
place. A breath above a stall, it was quite telling.

Happy ending that time. Broke through the bottom, way, way down wind
from where I had thought I was, a river to cross and lots of headwind
to barely make it back to the field without a pattern.

Went out the next day and bought a GPS. The string is still there. New
personal rule about cloud proximity.

Bruce and Cindy are two of my heros.

Michael