Higher Tows for Training Flights

On May 31, 8:42*pm, T wrote:
On May 31, 6:10*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:









On May 31, 5:49*pm, Tom Claffey wrote:

Thermalling should be taught from first lesson! Basic crosscountry theory
and short flights before solo!!
Tom

At the risk of sounding bitter: *This can only be done if your club's
instructors know HOW to go cross-country, care about doing so, and if
they've practiced thermalling within recent history. In my club out of
about 12 instructors on the roster there are only 2 that I know of
who've done even a single cross-country flight or any extended soaring
(i.e. thermalling) in the last 3+ years.

*sigh*

--Noel
P.S. *I'm not implying that they're bad instructors (I actually quite
like most of them); they're just all to the point where teaching stick-
and-rudder basics is all they seem to have the energy for anymore...

Our normal training season is winter, Oct to Apr.
I plan about 3000ft tows for the first few flights, basic flight
control of maintaining wings level and pitch/speed control.
Then we graduate to 4000ft tows to have altitude for stalls and steep
turns. By this time the student is learning to fly on tow and may need
a short rest on the way up, then take over again for the release from
tow procedures.

If the wind and local ridge agree, we start learning ridge soaring,
and as spring comes, thermals.
As the student gets closer to solo, pattern tows, 5 or 6 in a row.
Any lesson, time in the glider, much over an hour, the student has
max'd the learning window. He is burnt out.
Each one hour lesson may involve at least 2 tows to 3000 and a pattern
tow for an extra landing, rope break training or other PTT with
abbreviated traffic patterns.

Getting off at 2000ft and trying to learn thermaling to get higher for
stalls and steep turns is too much for the new student. With spring
thermals, the air work is reviewed and we concentrate on getting away
from the field and getting back. Every flight from lesson one is, can
I get back from here. We'll also include a forced out landing and have
the tow plane come retrieve us. (If the lake bed is dry)

T

I should add more, in consideration of the OP concern about landing,
getting back in the launch cue and spending all day to get three
flights.

We are a smallish club. Primary students fly in the morning, first
come first served, get your name on the list.
We allocate 1hr with the glider, plan your pre-post briefings outside
that hour. We can get at least 2 high tows and a pattern in that hour.

During XC season, the students fly training, all the XC birds line up
for launch. When the "trigger" is set, normally a CFI with a student
will report active thermals and relative strength, it's time to launch
the XC birds and traing tows stop.

Once the XC birds are launched, training tows can resume. Normally the
CFI that reports "Launch the Fleet!" will attempt to stay aloft with
the student while the private birds launch.

Normally one tow plane can keep two training birds going with
alternating tows and no waiting during the training windows.

T

On Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:14:18 PM UTC-4, noel.wade wrote:
As some of you know, I'm working on my CFIG (should get it after
contest season is over). But I have some strong disagreements with the
way my club handles instructing and so I'll be going my own way once I
have the cert. One area I've been thinking about a lot is our 3000-
foot "standard" tow. This seems to be a habitual height for a lot of
operations in the US; but just because it's a good height for catching
a thermal doesn't mean it's a good height for instructional tows...

Are there any clubs or operators out there that make high tows (say,
5000') for instructional flights? If so, can you provide any feedback
on how it works "in the real world"?


Don't disagree with the thought process at all. When I was doing a LOT of primary instructing (every weekend for 4-6 hours, sometimes both days), I did tend to mix in a "high tow" every so often if tow capacity permitted. What I typically found was that:

- 3,000 feet was more than enough for the early lessons. Student was often overwhelmed and downright sweaty in the palms after 20 minutes.

- A 4,000 or even 5,000 foot tow around flights 5 through 20 was sometimes useful, though I would rather prolong the flight using thermals (even circling in and out of weak lift can result in a satisfying flight from a lower tow)

- Patterns and landings consumed the majority of time/tows from flight 15 or so onward

In the club where I learned, we were fortunate to have auto tows available. So, one could shoot 4-5 landings in an hour starting from various heights and locations for a few bucks. In the end, this was far more critical to outcomes than longer/higher aero tows IMO.