CG hook on aero tows??

If someone can afford the cost of a new glider, it isn't going to break
them to pay for BOTH nose and CG hooks. I don't see why SH (or any
other manufacturer) would waste the time with "options" on this subject.
And it's good for re-sale since you never know where a glider may go next.

Mark

K.P. Termaat wrote:
Yes John, you are right.
I looked through the papers and found that the belly hook is the option
indeed. So SH does it it in the right way and tries to convince pilots to
use the nose hook when on an airtow. Probably the LBA has forced them to do
so.

Karel, NL

"John Galloway" . uk
schreef in bericht ...

Karel,

I think you may have paid the extra for the belly hook
not the nose hook. I am on the Schempp-Hirth waiting
list at present and when I enquired about the cost
of adding a nose hook I was told that all gliders had
the nose hook as standard and that the additional cost
option was for a belly hook. They would build a glider
with the belly hook only for no extra cost on special
request but it would be placarded as not certified
for aerotowing.

John Galloway

At 10:30 07 January 2004, K.P. Termaat wrote:

Just recently we (my son and I) bought a Ventus-2cxT.
Nice glider. My first
flight with it was on airtow. Used nosehook which we
paid for seperately. No
tendency of dropping a wing. However very nervous on
pitch during the tow.
Not a pleasure and was happy to release. I guess a
novice would certainly
have had problems with it.

So one may say that each glider has its own way of
being pulled into the
air. Being towed is certainly a safety issue. So I
wonder why not everybody
concludes that for airtows nosehooks should be mandatory
and CG hooks should
not be allowed. We are talking about money I guess.
We spent many thousands
of euros on the glider itself and try to save some
euros in not having a
nose hook installed and still like to take off in an
airtow. To my humble
idea our lives and especially those of towpilots are
to valuable to run an
additional risk of not using a nose hook in air tows.

Karel, NL