Another PT3 Story

I mentioned in the Nephi thread being released by the tow plane. A bit
of detail:

My first flight of the day I released at 2,000' AGL a couple of miles
east of Driggs. The lift was spotty and, after about 45 minutes, I had
to land. For the second flight, Tom, owner of the ASH-30mi made the
takeoff. At about 300' AGL, we got high and wide on the tug. I asked
Tom if he wanted me to operate the dive brakes while he fought to get
back into position. He said, "Yes". Before I could open the dive
brakes (only a little was planned), the tug got pulled such that nose
slewed through about 90 degrees and the nose was pointed steeply down.
The tow pilot rightly cut us loose.

We had completed about 240 degrees of turn following takeoff and, at
300' AGL, our greatest concern was getting this 26.5 meter span bird
safely on the ground. The airport at Driggs is 7,300' x 100' and slopes
up hill to the north. With full flaps and full dive brakes, we managed
to get on the ground after over flying about half of the runway. We
stopped at the last taxiway before the runway end turn off.

During both flights, the tow pilot maneuvered as though we were a 15
meter ship which was at the limit of our capability to stay in
position. Later, we had a thorough debriefing with the tow pilot
concerning tight maneuvering with this big glider on tow. The word must
have gotten spread around among the tow pilots because, on our next tow,
it was much easier to stay in position.

--
Dan Marotta

Thanks Dan!
A great point to make to tow pilots with long span gliders. That is something not normally covered during tug training of new tow pilots.
Roll rates of long spans are a lot lower than 15m gliders.

BillT