Try dragging a rope behind you....

[mary meagher]

All these Chermans are getting excited because an archer scraped in over a sunbather, who got his head down chust in time....

How did I get more takeoffs and landings in my logbook than any airline captain? simples, by pulling up gliders.

However, you may suffer a brain fart and forget you are dragging behind you 180 feet of rope and a steel ring. In this case, the farmer's fence will act as your arrestor wire....

One new tuggie came in too low, took out 40 feet of fence and 5 posts. The farmer who owned the airfield sighed sadly, went back to the barn, and presented the tug pilot with a posthole digger and fresh wire. He spent the rest of the day in unskilled labour.

[JW411]

I'll tell you a lovely story Mary. A great friend of mine used to fly the RAF Chipmunk that we used to borrow at weekends at my gliding club (he was also a glider pilot).

One evening at end of business he flew past to drop the rope before taking the Chipmunk to the hangar. For one reason or another, he got distracted and he forgot to drop the rope.

He had decided to practice some stall turns before landing. On the first one, right at the critical time, he was horrified to see the rope overtaking him! He went back and dropped the rope properly and then landed and taxied to the hangar.

He was pushing the Chipmunk into the hangar on his own when he was aware of someone joining in on the other leading edge to help him. As they went into the hangar, the voice said "I had a friend who did that. He is no longer with us."

All my friend heard or saw were the footsteps leaving the hangar.

It was our CFI who was the only truly natural pilot that I have ever met (I went solo in 1957 and flew for over 50 years) and that was it. Nothing more was ever said. Probably the most effective debrief in aviation history.

[IFMU]

At Harris Hill they have reels in the Pawnees and the super cub. Wonderful devices. The club did not want to invest until they had a close call and grazed somebody with a tow ring. There is a scenic overlook at one end of the runway with swing chairs.

[ShyTorque]

In the early 1970s I was undergoing an RAF flying scholarship at Ipswich. The airfield and duty runway were shared, one side gliders, the other side powered aircraft. I was flying a dual circuit consolidation sortie and was downwind when the glider tug, complete with tow cable, and without any radio calls being made, cut diagonally into the circuit right in front of us. The cable end was only a few feet in front of our propellor.

My instructor took control and took necessary violent evasive action. Had I been solo I'm not sure that I could have avoided the cable.

He landed, taxied up to the glider tug, told me to carry on solo and got out to remonstrate with the pilot. After I landed I learned here had been fisticuffs because the tug pilot was completely unrepentant and waved him away.

[Baikonour]

When tug pilots get it wrong (inappropriate title on the video really - the interesting thing here is not the airprox but the rope tangling in the propellor) : near mid air collision - YouTube

[Dan Winterland]

Crops, fences, tv aerials, car windows, courting couples in long grass - the list of victims of towropes is long.



I once took some passengers from the Aircrew association for flights on passenger flying evening at a gliding club I was an instructor at. I flew two pilots that evening. The first mentioned he had been a glider pilot before. Expecting he was just a lapsed recreational pilot, I was surprised when Igot the answer to the question of when he last flew. "1945, at Arnhem" was the answer.

But the other pilot mentioned he was taken off combat duties while convalescing after being shot down. He was posted to a unit flying target tugs which was very dull. To relieve the boredom, they used to set themselves various challenges. One was to land with a knot in the cable!

[India Four Two]

I once caught the very end of a rope on a barbed-wire fence. Luckily, it was the weak-link, which wrapped itself around the top strand several times and then snapped.

To me, it felt very similar to those occasions when a student lets the rope go very slack and then uses the airbrakes to get back into position! A very sharp jerk that makes you worry for the integrity of the fuselage. :eek:

[Piper.Classique]

What, you mean there is a tug pilot somewhere who hasn't caught a rope on a fence?

[N707ZS]

Hot air balloon crashes cars WOW - YouTube

[India Four Two]

What, you mean there is a tug pilot somewhere who hasn't caught a rope on a fence?

P.C
Very few, but not many want to admit it. Just like very few would admit doing a whole tow, wondering why the climb was so poor and then discovering during the downwind checks that the carb heat was on! :O

The pilot behind me said there was so much black smoke that he thought I had an engine problem and he was expecting a wave off.

[cats_five]

I had a tow where I wasn't sure we were going to clear the trees past the end of the runway, then the tug pilot turned on the second magneto...

[Jan Olieslagers]

...a good thing he didn't switch off the first! (a mistake I see myself quite capable of)

[david viewing]

I was in our pony paddock watching a balloon coming steadily toward us. The pilot attempted to land in the neighbouring field but the basket dragged and snagged on the fence. I ran over and shouted to him to hop the fence, to land in our property which he did towing some length of fence wire with him.

I told him not to worry about the fence, which I soon put back, and let his recovery crew in. Then I realised that my old dog Barney had vanished and in fact didn't come back until long after they'd packed up and gone. Ever after Barney would go mad at the sight of a balloon, leaping onto the spokes of the steering wheel in the Landy if we were driving which could be a bit awkward.

The balloon chap said that they gave landowners a free ride in return for landing and was as good as his word, although we didn't take the dog.

Sorry for the thread drift!

[squawking 7700]

Jan's post gave me a thought - once at height, quickly flick the mags off and on again while towing a glider and see if the resulting backfire wakes the glider pilot up!

Don't think I've dragged the rope through the hedge but I did have to adjust an approach to avoid a golfer - would've been good wrapping the rope around his club shaft whilst he was on the backswing.


7700

[mary meagher]

Once again we are treated to a testimonial on behalf of the Ballistic Recovery System....

I would dearly like to read the report on that accident, if one was ever made by independent observers. First of all, was he flying near a glider launching site? Did he keep a good lookout?

And what happened to the tug and the glider? There was another midair between a towplane pulling a glider and a Cirrus equipped with BRS, and everybody went down in flames.

The last chap talking about his life being saved was flying a Cirrus AND HIS WING CAME OFF! good grief!

So he rushed right out and bought a new one....

Sorry, folks, shouldn't get away from the topic under discussion. I am now going to post a separate report....which once again I probably have posted before.....memories, memories....

[mary meagher]

The pilot in the glider that I was pulling up with my Supercub was a member of the British Team for international competitions. The glider was equipped with GPS Nav and recording devices used in such competitions.

Otherwise we never would have found out who was flying the other plane!

I can't see very much above and behind the Supercub, so I turn from time to time to survey the scene. We were on a track often followed by Wellesbourne traffic, so when the glider pilot told me on the radio that there was traffic, I turned right a bit to have a look toward Wellesborne.

For all you pilots who don't remember the rules of the road, a combination of tug and glider has the right of way. Hah hah.

The glider pilot behind me said on the radio in unmistakable tone

"TURN LEFT NOW!!!!!!!!!!"

The same tone and words used by ATC when they really mean it.

So without question I turned left immediately, and an aircraft zoomed directly overhead and to my right, and if I hadn't TURNED LEFT NOW! it would have hit us. They never saw us at all. THEY LIED in their report when they were discovered, owing to the recording equipment in the glider giving time, place, altitude, and sure enough they showed up on radar when we filed an airmiss and it was investigated. No way did they do any avoiding maneuver. There were two of us, so it wasn't just my word.

Now altogether, lads, what are the rules of the road in the air? when confronted with another aircraft heading directly toward you.......

I could go on, but that's enough for now.

[JW411]

mary meagher:

Qick question; when did Edgehill become Shenington? We used to decamp there from time to time from Bicester and fly off part of the old taxiway to the north of the old east/west runway.

[mary meagher]

Edgehill became Shenington when Farmer Paul Gibbs wanted to put his village on the map....that would have been around 1988.

A chap whose name escapes me had been running his own private operation with his wife, flying T21s and other high performance two seaters, and exploiting willing to learn bods to do the grunt work. It was not at that time, I believe, a BGA recognised club.

Paul Gibbs, having tried the T21, went downhill to Bideford and learned to fly in proper gliders. He fell out with the current operator at Edgehill, and he together with Bruce Hopkins, Brian Badger, and yours truly, set up SHENINGTON GLIDING CLUB! I came from Booker because I had bought the Supercub, had it shipped from Texas in a Box, the engineer at Booker put it together, but the club said a 150 wasn't up to pulling open class gliders full of water, so Shenington needed me....or at least it needed GOFER!

Paul became an instructor; went to Dunstable to become a Full Cat and was our CFI, and a very good one indeed. When at Dunstable on the course, various posh pilots were discussing their gliders. I've got a Turbo Duo Discus, says one. I'm flying a 25 meter Lak, says another. Well, said Paul Gibbs, I own an airfield.

That corked 'em up!

Paul is in the Shenington Churchyard now. We gave him a good sendoff, with 6 gliders on tow, and the motor glider, directed from the ground as to the proper moment to do the flypast...and they did it right. We still miss Paul Gibbs very much. His widow and son are now managing the farm, and we are grateful to the family.

[JW411]

Thanks for that; good story.