The announcement above got me to thinking. Aerotow flight parks do a horrible job teaching students to foot launch and land. Basically they don't teach them. Not that that is their job, necessarily, but if you want to learn these absolutely vital skills (if you wish to go cross country), then you wouldn't pick an aerotow flight park as the place to learn them.

Okay, so let's just be sure of one thing. I'm not putting down aerotow flight parks. They are just not the best place in the world to learn these skills. Everyone agree, so that we can move on, huh? ( I could go into what aerotow flight parks are good for, but I'll do that later, once again).

So, James Tindle, the Florida Ridge Flight Park owner, is holding a mountain launch clinic at Henson's Gap. Now frankly I have no idea what is going to happen there or what qualifications you have to have before you attend this clinic, but I would be darn sure that you knew how to foot launch and foot land long before you went to it. Just my opinion.

By that I mean that you had a lot of practice foot launching and foot landing at a training hill or scooter towing. Scooter towing has the advantage of getting you a lot more practice than a training hill as you don't get a tired as quickly. The training hill has the advantage of giving you a better idea of the proper angle to hold the glider at when running off a mountain (or in this case a nice wooden ramp).

So again, I'm not putting down James Tindle and his plans for this clinic (I don't know his plans). I'm just stating the obvious. Learn to foot launch and land (i.e. practice, practice, practice), long before you get to the mountains. (This is so very rarely done, that it pains me to not have it part of our standard curriculum.)

Also, forget the radio. This is a crutch. If you can't launch and land in the LZ without someone else's guidance, then you have no business launching. Radios are unreliable. Radio instructions can easily be misinterpreted. Students get sensory overload with someone talking in their ear while they are concentrating on getting to the LZ and landing. Who's right is it? The other right? Something about a tree landing that last time this clinic was held?

My preferred option? Get scooter towed up to seventy five feet (after lots and lots of low tows to learn foot launching and landing and turning), do an aircraft approach and then land. Do this fifty times until you do it perfect every time. First you learn to launch and land. Then you learn to do the proper approach, not from a mountain site, but from a flatland site, in calm air.

I was in despair when I first read the announcement above. What is happening to scooter towing instruction? I had heard that James was going to incorporate it into the Florida Ridge. Great! I heard that someone else was going to do it there, not James. Great! It needs a single and concentrated focus. James is giving tandem rides. That is part of his job and where the money comes from, he can't focus on scooter tow instruction. The kind of focus that scooter towing needs.

I then thought about Lookout Mountain and Matt Taber and how he praised scooter towing instruction and apparently has not implemented it at all. Jay was supposed to work with Matt to set up this operation, but I haven't heard a single word. What's up with that?

Matt is apparently a huge fan of scooter and immediately built up a scooter tow system and repeatedly said how great it was, but then he apparently couldn't interest any of his own instructors in using the method.

In June and July we stayed at Cloud 9. Tracy had built an excellent scooter tow system. I saw it come out twice in the six or seven  weeks that we were there. Tracy and Lisa have full time jobs. They are also the tug pilots. They don't have time to have a single focus on scooter tow instruction. The kind of focus that you need to have in order for your students to have many many practice flights.

Given all this, I was in despair about the future of scooter towing. Then today, just in the nick of time I received two messages:

 Hendrikus P Bouwmeester [] writes:

We watched the Steve Wendt video one more time and we got aggressive and purchased a 150 scooter. Looks like it is when and not if. We want to get our scooter tow operation going before Spring.

Rik is up in Wisconsin.

Rick Brown <> writes:

We finally received our local BOD's approval for a scooter tow rig here at the Rochester Area Flyers. We have the talent to build one but would also consider purchase of a complete rig. Do you know of any available in the 125cc range? I have already sent this message to Steve at Blue Sky, any other possible sources? Thanks for your time and effort on this method, a few in the club attended the clinic at the Florida Ridge and look forward to the possibilities this creates.

Maybe, just maybe, there is still a chance that enough scooter tow instruction will be implemented in time to save the sport. It will be close, but it could happen. See the Wills Wing site for your scooter tow video and manual. Please, if you can help out the Rochester Area Flyers, contact Rick.

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