On May 4, 6:42*am, TonyV wrote:
Dave Nadler wrote:
Careful !

It depends on the glider, launch mechanism, and weather.

"It depends" is good advice from Dave. to further illustrate the point,
* in a nose dragger, you'd be generally advised to hold the stick back
to get the skid / nose wheel off the ground ASAP. However, if this nose
dragger happens to a 2-33 and the tow plane makes an abrupt start, the
skid will come off the ground by itself and the tail will slam onto the
ground and there's nothing that you can do about it. You'd be well
advised to start with the stick full forward in this case.

On a calm wind day, The starting position of the stick is not too
important, IMHO, because the controls are relatively ineffective at the
start. When the wind blows, it's another story.

Tony V.

Not to be overly facetious, but if you are positioning the primary
controls based on directions you took off the Internet, you are likely
to end up a bit behind the glider.

One of the main ideas in flight training is to develop a strong sense
of what you want the airplane to do under any circumstance and how you
need to manipulate the controls to get the airplane to do exactly
that. A mechanistic approach to flying will inevitably get you into
trouble. This, of course, is why when you ask what seems to be a
simple, mechanical question you get a dozen (or more!) replies with a
lot of "it depends" included.

Having said that, I know it isn't super helpful to someone with less
than a handful of lessons. I think you've gotten a sense from the
replies that there are many differences that determine the right
answer. Differences in: glider configuration (tailwheel - swiveling
or fixed versus nosewheel/skid AND cockpit loading/cg), wind
conditions (stong/weak, head/cross), tow type and profile (aero/winch,
fast/slow acceleration), wing runner performance (pointed down the
runway with wings level vs all sorts of messed up attitudes). What you
need to do in one circumstance can be totally different for another.

THAT said, generally with a glider with a fixed tailwheel that tends
to sit on the tail with the pilots aboard, reasonable wind conditions,
a straight and true wing run and an aero tow behind a towplane with
average power for the density altitude (forgot to put that one on my
list), your first instinct should be to push the stick modestly
forward once you have a little airspeed to get the tailwheel off the
ground so you can steer with the rudder and to put the wing at a
normal flying angle of attack so that the glider doesn't balloon off
the runway once it gets flying speed.

Again - you are the pilot. You will need to understand the balance of
all the forces on the glider and how moving the controls will change
that in ways that are predictable.

9B