Regionals Roster
Comp Towing Notes
As per normal there will be two possible towing directions: SW or W. This will be established in the morning after a discussion between the Competition Tug Master and the Met Man. We will use the SW run until the wind ensures that this is not possible – normally with a northerly component in the wind which would facilitate an anti-clockwise circuit around the villages from the W run, landing NE.
The SW will have two separate grids. The hill side grid will always launch first. The second grid will be on the club side, confined to the take-off ‘patch’.
SW landings: It maybe necessary to land diagonally in front of the hill side grid and then taxi up on the hill side. There should not be any issues with landing whilst launching the club side grid but using the take-off ‘patch’ to taxi back is encouraged if possible.
On the W run both classes will be part of the same grid. The aiming point on take-off will the the corner adjacent to the club entrance, therefore an early turn should not be required with potential heavy gliders.
If we use the W run then we should be landing on the NE run: the rope will trail into the field and we can expect a few weak links to fail. A rope swap should be rapid and cadets will be briefed on this.
A streamed launch is possible from either grid and will be at the discretion of the Director.
The dropzone will be roughly in the area of the Eaton Bray strip, around half way around the circle but will be confirmed at the morning tug pilots brief after the main competition daily brief, which will be held in the hangar or by the pumps.
Wave off the gliders at 2000′ agl. 45 LEFT and 45 RIGHT if still on.
Maintain visual contact with the tug in front and maintain adequate spacing. Ideally the previous tug should be taking off as you arrive on finals. To help with this, tugs will be streamed at 50 second intervals, the order of the tugs will be advised at briefing with the known more efficient tugs leading. It’s not a race but an efficient launch and tugs should remain in the stated order.
Radio silence should be maintained, with the exception of emergency messages. You will be given the normal up slack and all-out but you won’t need to respond whilst conducting the grid launch. Tug pilots should note down the tail number of the glider, however if this can’t be seen, a record is also made on the grid.
3 coloured bats will be used to identify the next glider to launch, you will be informed of the colour and whether (on the SW run) it is ‘club side’ or ‘hill side’ or (on the West run) ‘far side’ or ‘near side’ and you should be able to stop short of the grid. If you do overshoot, continue past the grid and come in from the other side. Hopefully the message on where to go will be given whilst on short finals.
When approaching the grid, aim to stop just before your baton, approximately half a tow rope length away and pointing at 45 degrees away from the grid – this should stop the rope coming off of the back with an over-exuberant cadet. With all grids it will be possible to taxi into it from either direction as there will be no winch cables.
There will be a supply of spare ropes on the grid, and if possible, two cadets will be assigned to swap ropes when required.
Two cadets will be given special tug duties in the morning to help extract tugs from the hangar, lay out ropes and do some cleaning of the leading edges of the wings and tailplane. Pilots should clean the propellers.
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