http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14994&start=34

Joe Greblo wrote:

Pilots coming in for landing with high hands, are often unable to prevent thermal or gust induced stalls. Clearly the same must be held true on launches.

I don’t know about you, but when launching or landing in turbulent conditions, I want to have the ability to leave the ground at a very low angle of attack, and to do so I need to be able to pull in as much as possible. To do this it’s critical that I keep my hands low on the down tubes.

So in conclusion, I’m not sure about whether these horizontal launches are as safe as upright flight, but I’m sure we’ll find out. I feel very confident about our need to keep our hands low during launches and landing approaches.

Every notice the pilots coming in with their hands three quarters of the way up their down tubes from 200' AGL?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14994&start=36

I wrote:

Now, regarding having your hands low. Last summer I was flying in Big Spring at the Big Spring Internationals and on one windy day we flew 215 miles to the north to goal. Coming into land I knew it was very windy and rough. Therefore even as I rotated up in my harness I kept my hands on the base tube and flew it all the way to the ground that way landing on my feet with no step, of course, as the wind was howling.

I also flew on a windy and gusty day at the Bogong Cup in January and came into land with a full warning from Belinda about the gusts at the Mt. Beauty airport. I pulled in hard and was getting bounced around quite a bit as I came down to the right of the asphalt runway in the grass. Just before I touched down, I raised my left had and put it low on the left down tube, within a foot of the base tube. I was very deliberate about keeping it low.

I then moved my right hand from the base tube and just as I touched the right down tube I was hit hard from the right by a gust. While pointed north still as in my approach the glider was moved sideways over 100'. The left corner bracket contacted the runway and was scraped from left to right, again indicating my orientation to the north at ninety degrees to the gust.

The left side of the knuckle on the Don Joy brace that I wear to protect my left knee contacted the runway and one can see the scrapes on it that were there instead of being on my skin or deeper.

The leading edge undersurface panel at the left tip was scraped with three small holes forming. The glider rotated after contact on the left side with the runway about ninety degrees, but I was able to hold it from going over until three pilots ran out to help me.

I believe that if I had kept my right hand on the base tube all the way to the landing (I assume on my feet) that I would have been able to counteract the gust from the right and landed with less incident.

Joe writes in response:

You point out that there are times when changing the hands on the downtubes can be dangerous; especially during landings. You've illustrated a recent bad landing because of it. I couldn't agree more. To me it's like playing Russian roulette. If I change hands near the ground enough times in turbulent air, I will be put out of control at some point. This is why I don't want to change grips or hand positions, or make body position changes whenever I'm in what I call the "danger zone". The danger zone is any place that immediate, positive command and control is a necessity. Clearly that's take off and landings at least. By the way, this is also why sometimes it's dangerous to flare and why pilots need to know how to run out landings.