when meeting another aircraft head on .......
Both should turn right, right? Well, that's the rule, isn't it?
Twice while tugging up a glider, this didn't work.
Junior Nationals Gliding Comp a few years back at Weston on the Green, pulling up a 19 with a Navy pilot, noticed a twin hauling a.... out of Kidlington, so I turned right to avoid him (of course towing a glider, I theoretically had right of way, right? )
He turned left.
I had nothing left to do but dive, with the Navy 19 still hanging on for dear life. Which is the right action for the glider on tow; we present one target (if a rather extended one) rather than two disparate targets. It was nice that he backed up my story when I returned to ask the director to please let Kidlington know what we were doing and where.
The other occasion a very experienced glider pilot was behind me and warned me of traffic; I hadn't seen it (nose high, you know) and began to turn right, and he said very very emphatically "TURN LEFT NOW!!!!" So I
did, and it was so near that if he hadn't directed that avoidance, I wouldn't have been here to file the airprox. The equipment on the glider exactly pinpointed the time and place, so we were able to trace the opposition.
That pilot had thought it would be sensible to dive under the combination.
Not really; if we hadn't seen him and diverged just then, it would have been
normal for the tug to descend.
I say again, LOOKOUT, LOOKOUT, LOOKOUT. Please.