Well, seeing as I still can't run, mountain launching is out of the question for me. So, I went to Manquin to see if I could fly the hang glider there. I flew about half an hour at 1:30. Thermal activity, but so small and so light, it was hard to stick the hang glider into it and get more than maintaining altitude.
So... I tried the paraglider. I haven't flown my Jumbe since early this year, I've never towed it and I haven't towed a paraglider in about 2 years and I've never towed with this particular release. So, I was a bit nervous and I was afraid I'd be a bit rusty. But everything went off without a hitch. Towed up to almost a 1000 feet and had a nice flight. It was too late and there were no more thermals left, but the air was still buoyant enough to get a nice flight out of it. I had such a blast, I had to tow it two more times before I ran out of daylight.
But, if you want to tow at Manquin and you don't have a tow sign off on your USHGA card, you'll first have to spend a day scooter towing with Steve. Are you a P2 yet? I think you'll have to be a P2 before he tows you, since he is no PG instructor.
I like towing with Steve, because he is very responsive. He watches you the whole way and if you're getting into trouble, he'll back off the pressure to let you sort things out, before he starts again. I know, because it happened to me. I had let got of the brakes (oh heresy!) to fix something on my release, then got into a turn and he gave me line until I had it sorted out, then continued towing again. Actually I had put both brakes into one hand, but I did just as badly with that as I would have had I let go altogether. Of course still better to keep ahold of the brakes, in case something funky happens, so they don't swing out of reach.
Btw, especially for towing reasons, I'm really happy I'm dialed into my Jumbe. I can feel it wanting to turn or pitch before it actually happens. It would be really hard to have to keep looking up at the canopy while keeping track of the truck to make sure I'm aligned. I only checked the canopy a few times to confirm that what I was feeling was what was going on.
Tow release:
I've used the truck tow release from the HG before, but I really advise against it. This time I towed with a specific PG release and it worked a hell of a lot better. Because of the tow-assist (hooks up to your speed pulleys) the PG wasn't dragging behind me (so much). Obviously, there is no tow-assist on the HG release.
In hindsight I think that it might have been really unsafe to tow without the tow assist, especially for the first 50-100 feet. Imagine a weak link break while the glider is dragging behind. You'll swing back under the glider, then probably past the point, unless you're fast and retard the action, then you pendulum back forward and if you don't have enough clearance and hit the ground while penduluming.... urgh.... either your guardian angel is on duty, or you'll see the hospital (at best).
-- ellis
p.s. some people in our PG community do not like towing for safety reasons. Maybe they can share their concerns. The obvious one is that more things can go wrong and some of them are not under your control.
p.s. things going wrong with the release. I should say something about that: my quick link unscrewed itself on tow. I wasn't sure if I should keep towing with it or if I should let go of the brakes and screw it shut again.
I watched it a bit and tried to figure out what to do. What if the bridle worked itself out of the quick link? Then I'd be towing off one riser only. Probably not a good idea. Get towed sideways? Sounds like recipe for desaster to me.
And on top of everything else this was the side with the release. I don't think I would have been able to release, if that side worked itself out of the quicklink. That part of the bridle would have swung out of reach (along with the release) and who knows if I would have had enough time to pull my hookknife to sever myself before getting into real trouble?
So, I let go of the brakes (well, put them in one hand) and screwed the quicklink shut again.
Sorry guys, I didn't have a camera with me - not sure if I would have taken the time to take a pic anyway, even if I had. I leave that stuff to the pros.
Steve and I talked about that afterwards and we think that I must not have screwed the quicklink all the way shut initially(maybe half a turn shy). He says it's easy for those things to unscrew themselves when under pressure and not screwed shut all the way. In the future I will make sure the link is screwed shut all the way and will keep a sharp eye on it.
Btw, when you screw a quicklink shut under tow, i.e. under pressure, it's a bear to unscrew it again when you're back on the ground and it's not under pressure anymore.
The safety of towing paragliders is almost 100% dependent upon the skill of the tow-operator. They must know what to do and when and not necessarily count on the pilot to do the right thing. Many of the tow operations I've seen for paragliding involve operators "overtowing" at some or all stages of the operation. (this is no comment whatsoever on Steve's operation).
