To initiate a flight, a member will fill out a flight card and place it in the appropriate slot in the flight card wheel located just inside the Flight Shack. The card should be placed beneath any others already there with the flight order for any particular type of aircraft being determined from the top card (first) to the bottom card (last). At the beginning of the day aircraft are pulled from the hanger, D.I.’d and put on the flight line when someone is ready to fly it. If the first glider is a 2-33 for example, the top flight card from the 2-33 list is taken and that member advised that the flight is his and to get ready. If it is an instructional flight you should assign an instructor to the student at the earliest opportunity so that he/she can brief the student on what is going to be done on the flight. The instructor’s name and # must be added to the student’s flight card and the card placed on the Flight Shack desk showing that the glider is ready for a tow. This will help avoid the situation where the glider is on the flight line and the towplane is ready but the student and instructor are not.
Usually, at the beginning of the day, the first person to fly an aircraft is the one that has just done the D.I. even though someone else may have put a flight card in the rack first. If this person does not want to fly first, he or she has no further priority to fly that particular aircraft
When the next glider is on the flight line behind the first, the procedure is repeated and the flight card is placed on the desk to the left of the first card, and so on. You will then have a series of gliders ready for flight with the cards in the same order. As the front glider is towed off, the timekeeper notes the take off time and towplane registration, stamps the card with the sequential number stamp and then places the card in the “in flight” board.
While the take-off order is obvious when there is only one take off line there are occasions when launches take place from other parts of the field as well. In such instances, when the glider is assigned a crew, the card is placed in the line on the Flight Shack desk. It is therefore quite easy to determine which aircraft is next to be towed. You should be especially vigilant when there is a glider waiting at another location, such as Rwy. 30. It is all too easy for the towplane to just pull up in front of the main line of gliders and leave the other glider waiting for a tow when it is that pilots turn next. Make sure someone is out on the active runway to direct the towplane to the next glider in the tow order, wherever it is waiting.
There are some occasions when the order of take-off must be changed, depending on the type of aircraft to be towed, who is ready to launch, and what towplanes are available. Things get shuffled around a bit sometimes, particularly when launching to the North, when it is possible to have several parallel launch lines. The Line Chief should watch for these possibilities to improve the efficiency of the launch line.
Usually, at the beginning of the day, the first person to fly an aircraft is the one that has just done the D.I. even though someone else may have put a flight card in the rack first. If this person does not want to fly first, he or she has no further priority to fly that particular aircraft
When the next glider is on the flight line behind the first, the procedure is repeated and the flight card is placed on the desk to the left of the first card, and so on. You will then have a series of gliders ready for flight with the cards in the same order. As the front glider is towed off, the timekeeper notes the take off time and towplane registration, stamps the card with the sequential number stamp and then places the card in the “in flight” board.
While the take-off order is obvious when there is only one take off line there are occasions when launches take place from other parts of the field as well. In such instances, when the glider is assigned a crew, the card is placed in the line on the Flight Shack desk. It is therefore quite easy to determine which aircraft is next to be towed. You should be especially vigilant when there is a glider waiting at another location, such as Rwy. 30. It is all too easy for the towplane to just pull up in front of the main line of gliders and leave the other glider waiting for a tow when it is that pilots turn next. Make sure someone is out on the active runway to direct the towplane to the next glider in the tow order, wherever it is waiting.
There are some occasions when the order of take-off must be changed, depending on the type of aircraft to be towed, who is ready to launch, and what towplanes are available. Things get shuffled around a bit sometimes, particularly when launching to the North, when it is possible to have several parallel launch lines. The Line Chief should watch for these possibilities to improve the efficiency of the launch line.