Letter to the FAA

Originally Posted by

On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 8:43:10 PM UTC-4, Walt Connelly wrote:
Before I send my letter to the FAA I'd like to ask if anyone has ever
attempted to get them to see the light and end the use of Schweizer
hooks on tow planes here in the land of the free and the home of the
brave. It is a well known fact and clearly stated in the SSA/SSF and
FAA circulars and literature that under certain conditions (the exact
condition that the tow pilot will need to release) that it can be near
impossible to release the glider. Tow planes have crashed, lives have
been lost and at the same time everyone knows that this is a dangerous
situation.

Along with the conversion to Tost hooks I'd like to see it made
mandatory that the release handles be up high, near the throttle and
quickly available to the tow pilot with adequate mechanical advantage. I
can assure you that one does not have the time to go ducking and
reaching and feeling for a handle down on the floor of a Pawnee while
the glider kites in back of you.

The idea of requiring nose hooks on all gliders does not seem to be
feasible although it has been brought up to me as something that needs
to be addressed. My understanding is that the CG hook is meant for
ground/winch launch operations, however I have probably done thousands
of CG hook aero tows with no problem. For the most part these are ships
being flown by the best and most aware pilots. I'd like more input from
experience pilots on this point.

I currently have a number of highly experienced pilots from all levels
of aviation in agreement with me and willing to help me in this cause.


If one life is saved as a result of this endeavor then it will be well
worth it.

Walt Connelly




--
Walt Connelly


Walt,

I don't know how long you have been in the "Aviation Community", but I have been a pilot for over 58 years, a flight instructor for some 46 years. Have owned 8 aircraft and 2 gliders, am also a tow pilot.
Back in the "Old" days, be had FAA inspectors that knew what was going on in the real World. Now a days, they are more worried about justifying their jobs and creating regulations.
There would be nothing positive to come about complaining or explaining your view point of the "hook" to the FAA. Now if you want to design and submit, get approved via STC, offer it for sale at a reasonable price, you would be accomplishing something. But, this takes time and a lot of engineering.. Instead of complaining, which is really easy, look at the real World, and see what you can do, not what the FAA can do, which they can't.

Tom Irlbeck

Well Tom, I'm not sure how long it would take for me to have been in the "Aviation Community" to have a handle on what happens when a glider kites at 350 feet in the wink of an eye. Your suggestion that I design, submit and get approved via STC (for what?) might be feasable if I was a mechanical engineer. That being said there is an STC for an inverted Schweizer hook which at a minimum should be the standard for every facility flying with such an apparatus. Why has this not been done? The SSA is behind the power curve on this one for sure.

So you think I am "complaining?" If that's how you wish to see it then fine, you bet your ass I am "complaining." But YOU don't have the right to bet MY ass or the ass of the next tow pilot who finds himself trying to actuate a release mechanism which is well documented in both the FAA and SSA literature to fail under adverse conditions, the very condition in which I found myself.

As I recall you came into SLGP in a small, blue homebuilt painted like a Navy airplane. I was the guy who towed you and the guy you asked to talk to your new tow pilot. Hope he took my advice.

Walt