If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 10:28:04 PM UTC-5, Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas wrote:
Walt, Please don't write a letter to the FAA. I understand your good intentions and valid points but asking the FAA to condemn Schweizer releases and make Tost tow release installations mandatory may ground 90% of our towplanes if and when the design and installation engineering is approved for our many different towplanes. I have been arguing with my club leadership for a while now that we should install a Tost hook on our Pawnee. That said, I absolutely agree with Burt on this. We already have enough mandates and plenty of people both outside and inside aviation who want ever more regulation. The "straw that broke the camel's back" and the "death of a thousand cuts" are real things. Please don't ask for more regulation! Education and rational persuasion are how things are (should be) done in a free society. Sincerely, Wallace Berry WB |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
Self-regulation is a really good idea. So, Wallace and Burt (and the
others), how many of your tugs have Schweizer releases? What plans do you have for replacing them with Tost - or, at least, inverting them? In your own time, without FAA mandates, without bureaucratic interference, without your tugs being grounded, during the slack season, of your own 'self-regulating' free will? No dates even pencilled in? Better write that letter, Walt. -- GC On 25/05/2017 22:13, WB wrote: On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 10:28:04 PM UTC-5, Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas wrote: Walt, Please don't write a letter to the FAA. I understand your good intentions and valid points but asking the FAA to condemn Schweizer releases and make Tost tow release installations mandatory may ground 90% of our towplanes if and when the design and installation engineering is approved for our many different towplanes. I have been arguing with my club leadership for a while now that we should install a Tost hook on our Pawnee. That said, I absolutely agree with Burt on this. We already have enough mandates and plenty of people both outside and inside aviation who want ever more regulation. The "straw that broke the camel's back" and the "death of a thousand cuts" are real things. Please don't ask for more regulation! Education and rational persuasion are how things are (should be) done in a free society. Sincerely, Wallace Berry WB |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
....Or those who don't want to fly without another FAA regulation could
simply quit flying and let the rest of us make our own decisions. And, in anticipation of the most often argument I've heard, no tow pilot is forced to fly a plane that he's not comfortable with. Dan On 5/25/2017 7:09 AM, wrote: Self-regulation is a really good idea. So, Wallace and Burt (and the others), how many of your tugs have Schweizer releases? What plans do you have for replacing them with Tost - or, at least, inverting them? In your own time, without FAA mandates, without bureaucratic interference, without your tugs being grounded, during the slack season, of your own 'self-regulating' free will? No dates even pencilled in? Better write that letter, Walt. -- Dan, 5J |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
If you get the Tost Tow Reel mod (that IS approved for Pawnees) you get a standard Tost release thrown in for free!
We have one Pawnee with the Tost Reel and one with the old Schweizer release. Guess which one is used more. Guess which one is scheduled to have it's tow system upgraded (parts already in hand). Kirk 66 St Louis Soaring Assn. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
Did you read what I wrote? I am actively trying to get my club to install a Tost hook. I think it's the right thing to do. However, there are many other things competing for our limited funds and time. Some of those things may actually yield a greater gain in safety than a Tost hook. I am not omniscient, are you? Do you know, with certainty, that what you want is the best thing for everyone else? How about working to persuade rather than advocate for the use of government force?
|
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
Gee, what could go wrong by asking the FAA to get involved...remember the whole Bob Hoover saga?
On Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 5:13:03 AM UTC-7, WB wrote: On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 10:28:04 PM UTC-5, Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas wrote: Walt, Please don't write a letter to the FAA. I understand your good intentions and valid points but asking the FAA to condemn Schweizer releases and make Tost tow release installations mandatory may ground 90% of our towplanes if and when the design and installation engineering is approved for our many different towplanes. I have been arguing with my club leadership for a while now that we should install a Tost hook on our Pawnee. That said, I absolutely agree with Burt on this. We already have enough mandates and plenty of people both outside and inside aviation who want ever more regulation. The "straw that broke the camel's back" and the "death of a thousand cuts" are real things. Please don't ask for more regulation! Education and rational persuasion are how things are (should be) done in a free society. Sincerely, Wallace Berry WB |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Page 9, Soaring Safety Foundation, Tow Pilot Training. The following is in RED: DEPENDING ON THE INSTALLATION OF THE TOW HITCH, IT MAY BE POSSIBLE FOR THE RELEASE MECHANISM TO BECOME JAMMED DUE TO THE EXCESSIVELY HIGH POSITION OF THE GLIDER. (AMERICAN STYLE HOOK) In addition the Advisory Circular, Date 3/3/08, AC No 43.13-2B, page 76 says: WHEN THE GLIDER UNDER TOW OPERATES ABOVE A CERTAIN ANGLE TO THE TOW PLANE, THE RING MAY SLIDE UPWARDS ON THE HOOK CAUSING EXCESSIVE LOAD ON THE HOOK AND DIFFICULTY IN RELEASING THE TOW ROPE RING. This confirms that the industry is well aware of the problems with this device and as one who has experienced it first hand I can attest and concur. Why is this known to this degree and has little to nothing been done. In short, the industry is not as self regulating as perhaps it should be. I found myself 300 feet in the air, pointed at the ground, attached to a student pilot who was not reacting and I was unable to release for more reasons than just the Schweizer hook. Had the rope not broken this conversation would not be taking place. I would have been a statistic and a glider port would be facing my lawyer brother. Recurrent training would have not been helpful with a 15 year old student on her 3rd solo. Low tow is not helpful when the towplane is just a few feet off the ground over the runway. Do you deny that there have been fatalities in this country due to this mechanism at a critical point? I found some of your commets to be condescending. Canopies, tail dollys, medical certificates. These do not address the problem I have outlined and only serve to confuse the issue. I take flying very seriously, I flew almost 7000 tows in 2 years and 8 months without scratching the paint or putting a wheel wrong. I enjoyed my time at SLGP and wish them nothing but the safest and best going forward. Walt |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
I completely agree with gregg...
|
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
Have to agree with Burt here. Please don't write that letter.
|
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Letter to the FAA
Walt, don't do it.
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
from latest news letter on vulcan, hope it is of intrest to some of you if you dont get the news letter | PAUL H | Aviation Photos | 0 | January 27th 13 11:21 AM |
A LETTER OF THANKS | minimoa | Soaring | 0 | September 14th 10 12:06 AM |
Letter from TSA? | Emily | Piloting | 14 | August 14th 06 11:33 PM |
A letter to a friend... | Greasy Rider© @ invalid.com | Naval Aviation | 3 | August 23rd 05 12:23 AM |
Letter from TSA | Rosspilot | Piloting | 2 | November 20th 03 01:12 AM |