Tow Endorsement at Lejair

After a reasonable sleep in my tent, I was ready for the second day of my winch endorsement at Lejair.

Tuesday morning arrived with a heavy dew soaking everything. By 7.30am we were prepped and ready for the day's first winches. My first tow was a quick recap from yesterday - just making sure that I hadn't forgotten anything overnight. That was successful and it was now time to try a release.

My next tow was much higher, probably around 200 feet. I was then instructed via the two way radio to release. I pulled the bar in to reduce line tension, looked down for the release mechanism, clicked it and watched the line descend back to earth. The glider was noticeably quieter as I turned it through 180 degrees, glided back towards the launch then turned back into wind and landed.

It was now time for the two point tow - this would mean two releases, one halfway up the climb and the final one at the summit. Tony made the necessary adjustments, secured the winch and informed me exactly what I was to do. The winch operator would wave a brightly coloured paddle as an indication for each of my releases.

Before launching I looked at the tow release mechanism, memorising the position of each release lever, making a mental note of which one to activate first! With that done I was ready.

I called 'All-out' and a few moments later I was pulled forward. A few long strides and the glider lifted, a couple more and I was airborne and going up much faster than I had previously. A short while later the paddle was waved. This was my indication for my first release. I lookedng down at the release, located the lever, pulled the bar and released. There was a gentle clunk and bump as the winch tension released from one line and transferred to the next and the climb continued.

I slowly eased the bar further and further out and continued upward. Eventually I was really high and looked down on the winch beneath me when there was a sudden bump and deceleration in the glider. I instantly realised the winch cable had snapped. I looked down and released what little of the cable remained and almost instantly, Tony's reassuring voice came on the radio telling me to release what cable I had left, then to fly back to the launch and land.

The remaining glide was fantastic, and I had plenty of altitude to play with and a strange sense of freedom, something I seldom get flying the hill soaring sites on the South Downs. I was able to fly all the way downwind back to the takeoff area and land successfully. There wasn't going to be much of a walk back to takeoff this time - I'm sure Tony's other EP and CP trainees were envious of this.

My next launch saw me do the second, top release, independent of instruction. This time the line didn't break. As I turned on my glide back to launch, Tony instructed me to practice some 360's - I'd only ever done one before so leapt at the chance and started steering the glider around in a circle. Tony's voice came on the radio informing me that I needed to ease the bar out once the turn started. What a difference that made! After a 360 I was told to play with the glider a bit, so experimented with some larger turns and pitch control. I was now behind the launch point so started setting up my final approach, once again landing perfectly - I really admire the Aeros Target!

Before my next launch Tony gave me some additional advice regarding my landings, the flare was perfect but a bit mechanical. I needed to feel what the glider was doing by slowly easing the bar out before flaring. The advice was greatly appreciated and on my next two flights I put it into practice. I also fitted my vario and was surprised to find out that I'd achieved an altitude of 629 feet on both my tows with a climb of around 10 metres per second (very happy beeps coming from it on its way up). Cool!

That pretty much concluded my winch endorsement. In less than 24 hours I had achieved so much. My landings had improved, I'd executed a number of 360's, played with my glider in a way that I've never been able to do before, and most of all had a fantastic time!

Tony and Rona were simply great and their help and instruction was greatly appreciated.