Cable breaks on purpose
In a winch launch the glider climbs steeply, nose high, and the cable is all that holds it there. If the cable breaks or the winch engine stops, the glider is suddenly nose-high and losing speed close to the ground, and if the pilot does nothing it will stall within seconds. That is why the most practised exercise in glider training is the cable break. The instructor simply pulls the yellow release knob at some point during the launch, without saying when, and you have to deal with it.
The first rule, before anything else, is to lower the nose. Push the stick forward until the glider is in a normal gliding attitude and wait until the speed is back to a safe figure. Only then do you decide what to do next, and the decision depends on height:
- low, below about 100 metres: land straight ahead on what is left of the field;
- in the middle, roughly 100 to 200 metres: a shortened circuit with early turns, or a landing across the field if the wind allows;
- higher: a normal circuit, flown a little lower and tighter than usual.
The middle band is the hard one, because it is where you have to think: sometimes too high to land ahead, and too low for a comfortable circuit.
Since the season started in March I have had 22 launches, and nine of them ended in a practice cable break. My instructor pulled the release at 40, 70, 90, 120, 150, 160, 200, 220 and 260 metres, in no particular order. Two did not go well. At 120 metres I hesitated for a long moment between landing ahead and turning, and a calm voice from behind me said that the field was not going to get any longer while I thought about it. At 160 metres I lowered the nose too gently, the speed came back too slowly, and I started the turn with less speed than I should have had. Both times he flew the last part himself.
The other seven were fine, including the one at 40 metres, which is the most frightening and the simplest: nose down, a short glide, a landing on the remaining grass with half the field still ahead. I now have 74 launches, and my instructor says the next step depends on the weather and on two good cable breaks in a row. I have already looked at next weekend’s forecast three times.