On Feb 12, 5:04*pm, Sarah wrote:
Exactly. *A certain soaring site in Arizona, which flew both G103's
and 2-33's insisted on "soft releases" in either, I guess
standardizing the process for the towpilots. *This was 20 years ago -
The last time I visited to rent, there was no mention of this during
the check ride.

--Sarah

I think I saw some mention of this in info on that gliderport's
website. The last check ride where I had somebody do that, a hard
pull up followed by a big dive, then release..the guy said he learned
it at that place too. When I asked him "why" they do that, he had no
answer, just "that's they way they told me".

What is the "plus" of soft release as far as tow pilot is concerned?

BTW....I searched the "soft release" on the Internet, and found one
textbook which has a section on "soft release" I do not know what the
book actually says about the soft release, but there is a section
about it.....Hopefully it says the soft release is a bad idea. I also
found some reports from a Soaring Safety Foundation meeting, where all
agreed on the "normal tension" release, and recommended a rubber
bumper be installed in the tow hook of the SGS-2-33.

One of my favorite textbooks is "Beginning Gliding" by Derek
Piggott.....He has a couple of paragraphs about relaese for aero tow.
He warns of the dangers of diving before release, as well as the
problems of trying to release under "increased" tension.

Are people confuing release technique for winch launch and aerotow
launch??

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