Most of us have had the inevitable frustration of being told to do something one way with one instructor, only to be told to do it differently when flying with another instructor. There are, of course, multiple ways of performing certain maneuvers, and slack rope recovery is one of those. I would like to hear feedback from the instructors here about which method they use, and why?

My personal experience of flying ASK-21s with instructors is that holding yaw until the slack comes out and continuing to hold yaw until the glider is back behind the tow plane works best for me. The air cushions the shock of the rope coming taut as the nose of the glider is pulled sideways through it. Holding yaw prevents a secondary loop of slack occurring. This method also worked well in my Libelle.

The other typical method of slack rope recovery is to yaw away until just before the slack is out and then diving toward the rope in an effort to more closely match the tow plane's speed. In my experience, this method is difficult to do well consistently, and often results in a secondary loop of slack.


Any comments?

Thanks,

Jeff