Selecting landout airports

And FWIW (in the almost-fergot-to-mention-it sense of things)...

On 5/26/2016 6:52 AM, akiley wrote:
Major snip...

I've also noticed from satellite views that there is often a grass parallel
area located at many asphalt strips, but no way of knowing if these are
landable.

Philosophically speaking, I've long considered airport landings - in a glider
and in the absence of 1st-hand and current knowledge of the field in question
- to be an "airport landout" by which I mean if the landing is on the runway,
it has a host of glider-unfriendly risks (just like every off-field landing)
with the sole exception of a known good surface (if powerplanes are actively
using it, of course; abandoned/little-used, "paved" strips don't count!).
Complacency can bite.

Furthermore, you doanwanna end up like a local pilot who landed out (some
years ago, now) a G-103 at the (nice, active, freshly upgraded) Longmont, CO,
A/P, located a whopping 8 or 9 air miles from our home field, and who decided
- for dodgy reasons likely having to do with "convenience for regular A/P
users" - to "use the grass" alongside the freshly re-concreted, very wide,
really long, main runway...and "busted the ship" by either hitting a
several-inch-high lip of a taxiway or groundlooping in the high grass (the
details have faded...).

Our local glider FBO/DPE (who went on the retrieve) was thoroughly
unimpressed, booming out the question, "Why'd you land in the grass when you
had this nice 7,000' long newly repaved runway right next to it???" Why indeed...

Bob W.

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 6:44:39 PM UTC+3, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
Practice unassisted TO's at your home field.
Slight cross angle of the glider to the runway, tip on the ground. Say you angle right a bit, put the left tip down (keep in mind any crosswind) such that it's drag on the ground aligns you as you accelerate. Part dive brakes can help with flow over the ailerons in the first hundred feet or so. Don't forget to close and lock the dive brakes.

Maybe if you have a CG hook. In which case angle into the crosswind and put the other tip down.

With a nose hook, If you angle right and put the left wing tip down then both rope and tip will be swinging you to the left, which can be a recipe for a violent fishtailing. Better to put the same tip down so the rope is pulling you left and the tip is pulling you right, and you'll be in perfect control.

The amount of angling is not big. Definitely try where there is some width available at your home field to find the right balance of tip turning you one way and rope the other.

Having the down tip going faster also makes it easier to pick it up.

Don't even try to take-off unassisted with a CG hook. It won't go well. I fly a standard class glider with a CG hook. I carry a JJ WingRunner in the cockpit with me on every flight and have used it in the very scenario you are anticipating - landout at a paved strip and aerotow out un-assisted. Entirely uneventful. It breaks down into very small components and is stowed in the baggage compartment until needed. Then assembly and attachment to the wingtip is quick and easy as per JJ's instructions. I consider it an essential piece of equipment and prefer to use that rather than an untrained human wingrunner.
Tom

An unassisted launch on a paved strip is not difficult.

I have an ASW 19, with GC hook and wingtip skids.

The first step is to get your handy dandy Home Depot caster out and stick it onto the wingtip with double sided tape.

Communication with the tow pilot is critical - you want to go from zero to fast as quickly as possible. The standard practice of pulling out the slack, stopping, announcing you are taking off, is not good here. You want once the slack is out you want to go - like a contest tow. The trick is to get aileron and rudder authority quickly, which means a fast start.

And once you have control authority it doesn't matter how close those lights are, because you're not going to hit them.

Yes, that's a product I've been looking for. Ordered mine today. Might come in handy in Minden where I spend a week every year. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks Bruce, I have done a lot of unassisted aerotow said with our STD Cirrus. And I do angle the ship in anticipation of the low wing causing a turn in that direction. We have very short grass on our primary runway so nothing has ever snagged the wing tip. With a Cirrus I preferred unassisted because by the time the wing comes up it's almost too late for it to drop again.

Why do you say that? I've taken off unassisted in my LAK-17a (CG hook
only) without a second thought. I think there's way too much fear
around CG hooks.


On 5/26/2016 5:20 PM, Tom Nau wrote:
Don't even try to take-off unassisted with a CG hook. It won't go well.

--
Dan, 5J

It's not possible in my ship, a '28, without a wingtip wheel.
Tom

Glad I read this now, may have prevented me from unassisted aero retrieves from a grass field a in a ASW-20, 24, 27 & 28 all with CG hooks......... Oh, never had an issue with those tows....... ;-)....... YMMV.......

Another vote for JJ's wing wheel.

Mileage varies with density altitude.
Try launching an ASW28 at 10,000' with a wing down, and you might agree with Tom.
Jim