Ever since I took up hang gliding again I have wanted to try it on the tow line. I did my tow conversion at Airways on my paraglider, which was great fun and had almost decided to leave it at that. Well, until I saw videos of the Norfolk Hang Gliding and Para Gliding Club towing at their home site that is. I watched loads of videos but Norfolk is a fair old drive from sunny south Wales, and I had almost dismissed the idea when I met a couple of Norfolk guys doing a Hill conversion. Turns out they were from the Norfolk club and they gave me the lowdown on how the club operated. This spurred me on, and when a few weeks later it looked as though we would be in their area I started to get serious.
I had made facebook friends with a few of the club members so I found out the phone number of Barry Freeman, the chief tow coach and spoke to him about getting tow rated at the field. No problem said he. Well, just a small problem of needing attachment loops on my harness, but we can sort that out too. No dual tow release? No problem, we can sort that too.
The towing field is near Great Fransham, and Thursday the 5th of August saw our van trundle up the track and stop just by the clubhouse, situated in the middle of a vast corn field. Well, most of it was stubble, having just been cropped, just one quarter field of standing corn left. The clubhouse is a large static caravan and there are picnic tables outside, nice for socialising after flying. There is a very long grass runway running almost North South and a shorter one running East West, and we were parked at the crossroads almost. Another chap was there, name of Alan and he was doing a power conversion on his hang glider, courtesy of Tony and Rhona of Lejair. They were using the field to do some training and Rhona was driving the winch and they had a student, Mark Fisher, who was doing his first flights, and making a nice job of them too. Alan was doing a power conversion course using a Doodlebug power unit with his glider, and I watched his progress with great interest, as I have just got a Mosquito power unit for my glider. Slightly different machines but the take off is the same. Later on that evening we had the pleasure of meeting “Peter the Greek”, the club chairman and winch operator who drove up and had a chat after extending a warm welcome. When he left he said that he would do the paperwork the following evening
Friday evening saw Peter the Greek back as he had promised, and Barry Freeman, the Senior Tow Coach was also there, along with Bob Cogman, who runs a harness and sail repair workshop. Bob had checked my harness out on Thursday to make sure it had the necessary connectors required to attach the dual release mechanism. Peter dealt with my application to join the club and then handed me over to Barry to fill out the towing endorsement details. Between us we finished the form and I handed over £108. Peter then said he was going to get the winch and off he went, taking another chap along to drive the quad which returns the tow lines to the launch area. I chatted to Barry and Bob whilst Bob fastened the dual release onto my harness. Two lines are needed when towing a hang glider, one goes over the bottom bar and attaches to the top of the release and a longer one goes under the bar and attaches to the bottom release. The glider is launched on the top line, but as the angle of the tow line decreases when the glider gains height, this line is released and the tow continues on the bottom line. The two of them had already checked over my glider which I had rigged ready, and they had pointed out a couple of things which needed sorting out at some future time. A slightly bent upright and base bar amongst them. The winch arrived and I was told to carry my glider up the field.
I got to the take off area and Barry showed me how to operate the release and how to connect the line, and ran through the commands. There are three commands and usually the pilot gives each command once, but the launch marshal gives the commands by radio to the winch operator and repeats each one three times. The commands are 1) Take up slack, or Up slack, which does exactly that, and puts a steady tension on the line. 2) Stand by: this gives the pilot as much time as they need to get ready/ wait for the best moment, and 3) All out! This is the signal for the winch operator to give it the gas and as soon as he does you need to run as fast as you can, maintaining a neutral angle of attack until flying speed is reached, then ease the bar out and start to climb away. The only other command, and this can be given by anyone, is STOP! STOP! STOP! It means exactly that, stop winching.
Soon I was clipped in and ready to go. We were using the long runway and I was as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Winch op waved a pink bat to make sure I could see it, as that would be my warning that the winch was going to de-power momentarily to allow me to drop the first line, and to warn me to drop the final line at the top of the tow. Barry asked was I ready and I said yes, take up slack and as the tension came on he cautioned me (again) to get the wings level. There was a bit of a wind blowing so I took a minute to get the glider stable before saying ALL OUT, and suddenly I was required to run like stink. Well, to be honest I didn’t have to run that far or that fast, three steps and I was flying, the head wind was a big help, so all I had to do was keep the nose from going up too much and stay on line. I was surprised how much pressure I had to exert on the bar to stop it from pulling forward, the glider wanted to lift the nose and climb! I was watching the winch and had no problem keeping on track. I saw the bat wave and the glider eased its nose down a little, I reached for the top release, found it and dropped the first line, the power came back on and just as I settled in to the second part, BANG, the line snapped. The glider slowed quickly so I pulled the bar in to maintain flying speed and after a quick height check, turned downwind and headed back to the take off area. I could see that the orange tow bridle was still attached and realised that the weak link had parted; tow lines are fitted with a weak link that will snap at a given tension to help prevent causing structural damage to gliders as a safety measure. I figured that I could land with no problem so I flew past the launch point, turned into wind and landed. I think I tripped over on that landing but did no damage as I had already landed by the time I tripped so I walked the glider back to launch and asked Barry if that had been a simulated line break, as we had been required to do one on the paragliding tow conversion. No he replied, it was a proper weak link failure, the winch operator has said that he was being a little bit too enthusiastic in view of the wind, but it gets it out of the way and you coped with it really well. Well done. He also said that I could have jettisoned the bridle but as I hadn’t it saved them the job of looking for it. I clipped in to the second line and made ready for my second flight.
The winch we were using is powered by a VW engine through a semi automatic gearbox, I think it is a 1600cc motor, and it drives the back axle of the car, the whole thing being mounted on a trailer, so there are two tow drums, one on each wheel, and a separate handbrake locks the wheel not being used, so two lines are laid out and two tows can take place before the lines need retrieving. There is also a guillotine device on each line so that in an emergency the line can be cut by simply pulling a lever.
Even though I had not unclipped from my glider, Barry did a full hang check, and went through the full safety check. I soon came to realise that the club takes safety very seriously indeed. Standard safety checks are done and noted on a sheet of paper on a clip board, check includes hang check, boot laces, harness straps, chin strap and helmet security, reserve handle and pins. The winch is informed who is doing the marshalling, who is the pilot, what he is flying and on which colour tow line he is on. Winch is also told “All checks complete and logged” A small sticky label, or token is stuck onto the paper alongside the pilot details to complete the checks, these tokens are purchased from the club to pay for the expenses incurred in running a tow operation. Pilots who learn to drive the winch are given a discount as they share the workload, and all pilots are expected to help with the launch marshal duty, as I found out the following day.
My second tow went well and I came off the line at the top of my tow and turned downwind after making sure that the line had actually detached and fallen free. Barry had stressed this in his briefing, “Make sure it has gone before you turn!” I zoomed down the field and did beats up and down the hedgerow to lose height, letting myself drift into the back field as I did, and then turning back into wind at the opportune moment, received a surprise at the amount of turbulence caused by the hedge as I came over it, landed and walked a little way back to the launch feeling pleased with myself. Felt even more pleased when Barry said “Nice launch, nice flight back, nice landing!”
We did two more launches that evening, the last one being a full 1200ft and taking me vertically above the winch. It seemed to last forever going up, and it was a long time before my feet touched the field. We called it a night then, and Peter who had been driving the winch asked me for my thoughts on what had been achieved and any problems I had. He also said that I had done well on my flights and he was expecting the following day to be the same. I was just grateful that so many guys gave up their time to get me going on the Friday night, no one else flew.
Saturday was a much lighter day and we used the East West runway and the club had both winches out, so there were four lines in use. Other pilots turned up and I was able to meet some friends for the first time and some for the second and third times. Barry did whinge a little bit because I was using his tow release so he couldn’t fly himself, and said that if anyone else came for a conversion they could darn well bring their own kit, but all joking aside, they gave me precedence on the tow line so that I could get the conversion completed. I flew with the head camera and took some video which I will publish on Vimeo so that anyone can see it. Barry even gave me tips on how to land without coming out of prone till the last second. Thank you Barry.
We had a little rain but I got all my flights in, landed by the camper (well, fairly close!) after the last flight, and as I still had some tokens left, I walked back to the launch area with my paraglider and had four more flights. Slightly different procedure with a floppy, safety checks include leg straps and waist straps, a check is made that the “A” lines are clear and that the brake lines are clear, and the commands are only two, “Up slack” and to actually launch is just the word “Tension”. Tow line is drawn in at slightly less speed at first, to allow the wing to inflate and be checked and then it is off and away. On my last flight I got off okay but immediately noticed a pronounced drift to my left. My initial thought was side wind, but the winch operator had backed off the power and when I checked, I had a knot in the upper brake fan. I gave it a tug but felt that it was not going to come out so I leaned back and shouted “STOPSTOPSTOP” as loud as I could, and when the power went off I detached from the tow line and landed. Took me a while to get the knot out but then I bagged up and called it a day. I got in touch with the winch operator on the radio after and told her what had happened, mainly so she would know it was not her fault.
I enjoyed my weekend with the Norfolk Hang Gliding and Paragliding Tow Club enormously. I met lots of nice people who were very helpful; I learned loads, got my tow conversion in a safe and professional environment and saved money. I will be travelling back there to fly with them again soon.
