A long, long time ago I did some instructing for a club at a major university in the Boston area. Part of the checkout flight with them included a slack rope demo.

The check pilot described it and then performed it: climb up above normal high tow position, then dive on the towplane and move out to one side until a big loop of slack forms (in this case, it disappeared behind and under the wing, although we were well out to the side by then). To recover, hold position out to the side and allow the speed to bleed off; watch for the loop to reappear; and then dive slightly and turn in behind the towplane to match the speed as the slack comes out.

The check pilot's attempt was "OK", although eye opening when I watched the amount of loose rope go back behind the glider and the reappear some seconds later.

"Now you try it." So I did. With about the same modest success. It wasn't a smooth synchronization of speed with the towplane but we didn't break the rope. "OK, uh, that's good enough."

It turned out that the local designated examiner, an experienced glider pilot, required this maneuver, which I never encountered again. Years later I recall reading about a fatal training accident in the area, the details about which were sketchy but that seemed to resonate unhappily with that day.

It remains one of those experiences that I'm sort of glad I had but which I would never intentionally repeat or ask anyone else to.

Chip Bearden