Where's Will?

One week since my first day with Flylight and I’ve returned to complete my aerotow endorsement. Following last week’s routine, I met up with Will in the Aviator Hotel for breakfast after which we headed over to meet Cathy and Stewart from Flylight.

Our first flights were to be solos on the school's Target 16 then, depending on how that went, we'd be converted to trolley launching our own gliders. Although a week had passed since my last aerotow flights, flying the Target felt very familiar. The launch and tow went well and as Stewart had instructed me to land by the hanger if I was happy, that's where my first flight of the day concluded. I was now ready to switch to my own glider.

Back at the hanger Will and I fetched our gliders and moved them out to the launch area. I'd be using my Koch release, so fitted it to my harness. For my first flight I'd also have a fin fitted to the keel to help the glider track behind the tug on tow.

After Will's first successful tow my glider was placed on the launch trolley where I clipped in and held onto the trolley's strings [this would keep the glider on the trolley during the initial launch moments]. When the tug was ready and the slack taken up the launch began.

The school’s Target hang glider is towed using a tow leg set-up [50:50: bridle]; this spreads the tow force between the pilot and the keel, the result is reduced bar pressure when on tow. My own glider would be towed with a single line attached to a Koch chest release mounted on my chest. This set-up proved to be more of a challenge and as my glider flew, it climbed quicker and higher than I had expected. I pulled the bar as far back as I could but barely maintained a similar altitude with the tug. As the tug climbed and I dropped to the tug's altitude and some slack developed in the towline. I eased the bar out slowly to reduce the tension fearing the weak link would fail. I seemed to get away with it, then, the weak link failed or my chest-release released the line [no input on my part]. Disappointed, I turned the glider around and flew back to launch as the tug and line continued off ahead of me.

As I'd failed to complete a tow, I was put straight back on the trolley for a second attempt. This time, all went to plan [no weak link or premature release]. Cathy towed me to cloud base where she waved me off. My vario read 1,800 feet and with clouds around me and the sun glaring, I had a very enjoyable glide back down to the airfield where I landed in nil wind next to launch.

My next launch was smoother than my first, probably a result of the trolley launches becoming more familiar. With the sun low in the sky, the glare made it impossible to see the horizon so I struggled to maintain the correct position behind the tug. When I reached the agreed 1,500 feet above take-off, Cathy waved me off and I enjoyed another glide back to the airfield.

My next flight started well, but just as we left the airfield boundary, my bloody chest-release released the towline for a second time! There was also an inbound flight expected, so I quickly turned my glider around, flew across the airfield and landed. 5 minutes later, the inbound flight landed on the runway I'd just crossed reinforcing the fact that, Sywell is an active airfield!

Will had also experienced problems with his chest release system so swapped it for one of Flylight's releases. Will's next flight was his mile high tow. Stewart and I watched as Cathy towed Will through a hole in the clouds and continued upwards. We quickly lost sight of them as they continued above the clouds. Eventually Cathy returned and we briefly glimpsed Will through a gap in the clouds. That would be the last we'd see of Will for quite some time!

On my next flight, with Will at an unknown location, I decided to do ditch my Koch tow release and use the Flylight system. After I instructed “All out”, the tug accelerated and the towline tensioned. Suddently, there was a bang or pop sound and I watched the towline recoil off into the distance! As the trolley came to rest I assumed the weak link had failed, but when I looked down, I realised that the webbing on the release system had snapped. Stewart apologised as he hadn't pushed the trolley and assumed this contributed to the problem. Later we discovered there was a fault with the webbing on that particular release. I wasn't having that much luck!

Sadly this meant I had to switch back to my own chest-release system that caused me so many problems earlier. This was to be my high tow and I was desperate to get up and join Will. Sadly, the Koch chest-release would put an end to that! As before, shortly after I had I left the trolley, the towline was released without conscious input on my part! I'm pretty sure I swore out loud in frustration before I swung the glider around to land near the hanger. With the sun low in the sky and Will still missing, I decided that was it for me today.

By the end of the day I was frustrated that I didn't get to do the mile high tow [static winch releases are probably not so suitable for aerotowing] but as Stewart had said, I'd coped well with pretty much every eventuality that could happen and for that reason, he signed off my aerotow endorsement.

As for Will, despite trying to get hold of him on his phone without success, he eventually showed up on foot at the hanger. It came as no surprise, but on his mile high flight he'd became disorientated while above the clouds. When he eventually dropped through the clouds, he couldn't find the airfield so landed at a nearby village where someone was kind enough to give him a lift back to the airfield.