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Can you tow with a Boxster?


RickLS7

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As it turns out, yes you can.

Alright for an airfield, dont try this on the road though (especially if you have a glider attached).

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Edited by RickLS7
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Well done. It has a 83ft wingspan, one of the biggest gliders ever made.  Used to have an Rolladen Schneider LS7 -  hence the profile name.

A view from the cockpit:

oQatkI2.jpg

5HNHGoP.jpg

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1 minute ago, RickLS7 said:

Well done. It has a 83ft wingspan, one of the biggest gliders ever made.  Used to have an Rolladen Schneider LS7 -  hence the profile name.

A view from the cockpit:

oQatkI2.jpg

5HNHGoP.jpg

Nice, that's quite a view.

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Does everyone know about the towing eye/bolt on tow ball trick or do normal people have no need for towing stuff off road?

If so, wish you'd told me sooner.  Nothing worse than having to take the BMW to the airfield on a great Boxster day.

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1 hour ago, RickLS7 said:

Does everyone know about the towing eye/bolt on tow ball trick or do normal people have no need for towing stuff off road?

If so, wish you'd told me sooner.  Nothing worse than having to take the BMW to the airfield on a great Boxster day.

What trick? C'mon - tell us.....

I tow on road quite a bit (sailing cat' & motorcycles).  Do you turn the eye 90 degrees or bolt a ball though it?

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42 minutes ago, GTSMarky said:

What trick? C'mon - tell us.....

I tow on road quite a bit (sailing cat' & motorcycles).  Do you turn the eye 90 degrees or bolt a ball though it?

It looks like a ball bolted through the towing eye.

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19 hours ago, GTSMarky said:

I do keep thinking of trying to find something to replace motorcycling & doing my PPL is up there.  Gliders worry me, but that's an ignorance thing really as I think they are super cool.  Big glider club right near me too.. Cambridge Gliding Centre | Gliding experiences, courses and much more! (camgliding.uk)

I know a lot of air force and airline pilots that started off gliding, what's interesting is they are still mad for it and get really miserable when stuck in their jets on a really good gliding day.  It's a different kind of flying, using your skill & experience to get the most out of the weather. The gliding distance record is 3008km in 15 hours (we are not allowed to fly at night), that's the equivalent of here to Moscow and back.  The altitude record is 76,000ft which is higher than the U2 can manage. 

There's also the cost factor, I flew for 4 hours yesterday and it cost £9.50 for the winch launch (let's not mention how much I paid for the glider, insurance etc).  Also a lot of the training counts towards a PPL as there is a lot of similarity, not sure of the current criteria but used to be able to convert to a full PPL with 20 hours powered flying if you were solo and bronze level in gliders - which saves a lot of money. 

Mainly, gliding has a great club atmosphere as we need to help each other.  Powered pilots generally aren't very sociable as they don't need to be.  I have done a lot of powered flying in some really awesome aircraft but I still prefer the thrill of gliding. 

Not flown from Gransden Lodge (Cambridge) but have been there and has a great airfield, facilities and gliders.

Edited by RickLS7
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On 5/20/2022 at 1:40 PM, RickLS7 said:

I know a lot of air force and airline pilots that started off gliding, what's interesting is they are still mad for it and get really miserable when stuck in their jets on a really good gliding day.  It's a different kind of flying, using your skill & experience to get the most out of the weather. The gliding distance record is 3008km in 15 hours (we are not allowed to fly at night), that's the equivalent of here to Moscow and back.  The altitude record is 76,000ft which is higher than the U2 can manage. 

There's also the cost factor, I flew for 4 hours yesterday and it cost £9.50 for the winch launch (let's not mention how much I paid for the glider, insurance etc).  Also a lot of the training counts towards a PPL as there is a lot of similarity, not sure of the current criteria but used to be able to convert to a full PPL with 20 hours powered flying if you were solo and bronze level in gliders - which saves a lot of money. 

Mainly, gliding has a great club atmosphere as we need to help each other.  Powered pilots generally aren't very sociable as they don't need to be.  I have done a lot of powered flying in some really awesome aircraft but I still prefer the thrill of gliding. 

Not flown from Gransden Lodge (Cambridge) but have been there and has a great airfield, facilities and gliders.

Interesting.  I'm a keen sailor, mainly race catamaran dinghies and have been sailing since 1976 pretty much.  I have my yacht master (theory as CBA with doing the sea miles for the practical) & get nothing from a motor yacht opposed to a sailing yacht, so much the same concept really.

I did have x3 trial flights some years ago @ Gransden, so might try again.  It's the crash landing bit that puts the wind up me to be quite honest..

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I used to be a keen sailor until I joined the Air Force. There are those who prefer sails and others motor boats, we both know which is the more challenging and rewarding. 

Crash landing?? landings should always be smooth and gentle when flying with someone even half competent. 

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Sometimes you have to land in fields, in twenty odd years I've only landed in three and they were all fine.

I have a 500km flight planned for Saturday if the forecast is correct, most of the time I will be out of gliding range of my airfield but reading the weather and flying efficiently and fast is what it's all about.  You won't venture out of gliding range until well after solo.

Having said all that, an increasing amount of gliders have engines to get you home.  This one has a retractable jet:

 

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20 hours ago, Boxob said:

@RickLS7 If on your final approach to the airfield you have to abort, e.g. something on the runway, do you usually have enough speed to go round again? 

Alas not, with the flaps and undercarriage down and airbrakes out, we approach around 10 knots faster than the stall speed (depending on wind strength). 

We rarely use runways though and normally take off and land on wide grass airfields.  This means that if the area selected while doing a circuit becomes unavailable, we just land further further across or down the airfield.

 

Saying that, nothing wrong with putting the speed on and doing a beat up:

 

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