Crosswind aside, you shouldn't climb higher than the tug. If you go higher, or lower, you are going to lock out. I'm just amazed how high he got before he locked out. You should always keep the tugs wheels on your horizon....as best you can. This guy was WAY above the tug.
It would be interesting to know what VG the pilot had set? I’ve known of a few incidents like this now where it was down to the VG popping off during the roll out or the VG not being set for launch. The hg pilot then does not have the pitch authority to bring the glider back on station.
I'm sure the pilot knows this, but for others who might be wondering what's going on here: The pilot is launching with a 90 degree crosswind from the left, this will cause the glider to crab to the left upon leaving the cart. Because the trike is on the ground for a few seconds while the glider is in the air, the glider will also be to the left of the tow force causing a left turn. The easiest place to fly is directly behind to slightly above the trike, this gives you the greatest area in which to react to the motions the trike makes. The higher you are on the trike the higher the tow force, and therefore the more effect on roll being horizontally offset will have, in this case the pilot get's far too high on the trike initially and his roll control is therefore additionally compromised. The pilot could have, likely up to around 0:35, aggressively pulled in and turned to back to the right. Pulling in will arrest the tow force, and give you more airspeed, and therefore significantly greater roll control. The first instinct on leaving the cart should be to immediately pull in somewhat to arrest your climb, level out, and then follow the trike up. Getting too far horizontally from the center will eventually result in an uncorrectable turn (a lockout), which is what we see happening here.
Yep,,, I've found that if I pull in, I have much more control to avoid a lockout. He focused too much on correcting to the right and it just got worse very quickly because he didn't pull in while doing it.
Crosswind aside also, I'm sure that he was so far above the tug that he would be pulling the tug's tail up with such force that the tug couldn't climb.
Yeah, I noticed the tell tale on the wire blowing cross right away and was wondering; Why even attempt to tow in a cross like that? The beach 'looks' almost deep enough for the trike to take off perpendicular to shore and head out over the water into the wind, but I'm not a trike pilot and have no idea what their STOL range is. If it's cross like that and they absolutely have to tow parallel to shore, should have waited to see if the cycle would lull. Either way, nice abort release and landing by the pilot
Yes all that cross wind is a big factor, but if the glider pilot can’t manage his climb on the tug then that’s going to do just what it did. AND the trike pilot has got to get up and climb too! Maybe trike’s wing is to small and can’t fly slow enough.
Kudos to the tug pilot for releasing you when the situation got out of control. I think you should have drop the tow rope immediately. You took a big risk by landing with that rope. I have noticed Tenax 4 harnesses rock up easily and don't allow the pilot to pull-in and effectively control the pitch.
Oh wow, I did not notice he still had the rope that whole time.... Yeah not good. There are multiple pitch adjustment systems available for the tenax 4. As with any harness some small adjustments may help. That said I don't think the pilot in this case was trying particularly hard to pull in.
Tow pilot did not release the tow rope. The HG pilot did. He was using a pro release that is attached directly to the harnrss shoulder straps. You can see him reaching for the release at 0:40.
If you are only going to show one incident, it should not be plural in the title. 🤷🏻♂️ You May need to change your toe point. You got way too high, too soon. Nice recovery.
