A lot of time at a gliding club is spent helping on the ground. So far I reckon that for every hour spent at the club I have averaged five minutes flying. This means that a six hour visit would typically include one half hour flight or two fifteen minute flights. So there is plenty of spare time to help out (interspersed with bouts of coffee and mars bars in the clubhouse). It is a good idea for a student to muck in and help as much as possible. The gliding movement depends upon volunteer efforts to keep things moving at the club as well as behind the scenes. In helping out you get to know other members faster and learn important aspects of operating the airfield and its equipment. And you show a welcome willingness to do more than simply turn up, fly and disappear.
Initially I was asked to help push gliders around the airfield. This soon teaches you which parts of a glider are designed for pushing and which parts are not. If you forget, someone will very quickly point it out... In general you can only push the leading (front) edge of the wings close to the fuselage, and certain other points like the nose or the leading edge of the vertical tailplane (fin). It depends on the glider so if in doubt ask. This means that gliders are normally pushed backwards (but towed forwards). Soon I graduated to holding a wingtip to keep the wings off the ground while others pushed or towed a glider. This is usually less hard work but requires a more delicate touch as you need to speed-up or slow-down carefully to steer the glider.
Normally you need at least two people to move a glider. When pushing one back from the parking area to the launch point the pilot is normally already strapped-in, making the glider heavier. It can take three or even four people to shove it along bumpy grassy ground. Usually one person holds a wingtip, two push on the wings and one pushes on the tail (ready to help rotate the glider aligned for takeoff).. When rotating the wingtip someone else should push down on the tail (easier) or lift the nose (harder) to balance the glider on its main wheel.
When moving a glider it is important to consider the wind speed and direction. Normally you should hold the upwind (into-wind) wingtip which tends to lift when the wind gets underneath. Gliders are tough but the long slender wings provide plenty of leverage to flip a glider over which is dangerous and can lead to costly repairs. When rotating a glider on the ground you need to turn it so that the rudder does not slam around when the wind catches it. And you should stop and change wings to make sure that the upwind wing is always the one being held. By now you may have realised that gliders tend to get damaged much more often on this ground when flying.
One day I was hanging around waiting for my turn to fly when a solo pilot arrived and asked me to help him prepare the club's Discus high-performance single seater glider. As I was now becoming more familiar with ground handling I was asked to drive the tow truck (a Rascal). So I drove us back to the hanger and we went through the Discus Daily Inspection. Then we attached the tow rope to the tow hook and I gingerly pulled the expensive aircraft back along the airfield into position for takeoff with its pilot holding the wingtip. The engine idle speed of the towing vehicle should be set so that you can tow and maintain a steady walking pace without maintaining pressure on the accelerator or clutch. A lot easier. After the Discus had a Puchacz landed and I chased after it in the Rascal and then towed it back again to the takeoff point for my own flight.
When towing you are responsible for lookout (just like in the air). It is important to clear the runway(s) as quickly as possible especially if there are other aircraft waiting to takeoff or are in the circuit coming in to land. You need to be very careful not to cross a runway when other traffic is approaching, bearing in mind the length of the combined towing vehicle, rope and glider. You should also keep an eye on the helpers handling the glider as they may signal you to stop or change direction. And to make sure you aren't going too fast and they are having to run. Or that you haven't led them into a huge patch of thistles or nettles. Normally one person hold a wingtip and another walks alongside the nose to slow the glider if it starts catching up with the towing vehicle, e.g. on a slight downhill slope.
Some aspects of towing a glider are like towing a long trailer - you have to anticipate and then pass the normal turning point and then turn outside the normal radius in order to keep the glider behind on the path, taxiway or runway. One other concern is to keep the speed just right so that the rope does not snatch or go slack or get caught around the nosewheel.
On a windy day all gliders should be turned so that they are parked with their wings cross-wind (aligned with the wind). The wind may be a little from behind, but should not be from the front or the glider may be picked up and flip over onto its back. Then you put one wing-tip onto the ground. Which one? That depends upon the glider's wing loading. Gliders with low wing-loading usually have wider wings and shorter wing-spans than high wing-loading gliders. Low wing-loading gliders are usually older wooden machines and training types of fibreglass machines like the Puchacz and Junior. Most other fibreglass gliders have a higher wing loading. The higher-performance the glider, the higher the wing-loading, usually. A glider with low wing-loading should be parked with the into-wind wingtip low (on the ground). A glider with high wing-loading should be parked with the into-wind wingtip high (in the air). If the glider will be left unattended a tyre should be used to prevent the glider from weather-cocking into the wind. For most two-seaters the tyre can be placed against the nose-wheel or jammed under the tail (which may also lower the nose and reduce the wing angle of attack). For most single-seaters the tyre can be placed against the tail-wheel. If you sit in a glider on a windy day you should always fasten your safety harness in case the glider blows over.
Another key responsibility is helping to launch a glider and after a few weeks at the club I was asked to help out:
When the glider is in takeoff position with the pilot completing its pre-flight checks you fetch the towrope and make sure it is attached to the towing aircraft (tug). Although rope checks are normally included in the daily inspection of the tug, it is a good idea to check the rings at the end of the towrope before each flight, especially the weak links to make sure they are intact. Otherwise the rope could break well below the normal minimum strain. It is also helpful to look along the rope to check for any frays or broken strands or a knot which will roughly half the strength of the rope.
After the pilot completes the pre-flight checks he/she calls "brakes closed and locked, ready for tow". You then attach the tow rope to the towing hook in the nose of the glider. For aerotowing a glider handles better if it has nose hook, but some only have a belly hook that is better suited to winch launching. It can be hard to communicate with the pilot through the closed canopy so a hand signal is normally used. You call "open" and raise an open hand and the pilot pulls the rope release handle. You insert the end-ring of the tow rope into the hook box and call "closed", at the same time closing your hand into a balled fist and the pilot lets go of the rope release. Then you stand up and check that the rope is secure with a good tug.
Next you walk over and lift the wingtip. Which wing ? It depends upon the tug and the wind direction. Ideally you lift the upwind wingtip (as above), but most tugs only have a rear-view mirror mounted on one side - typically the port side in which case you would lift the left wing. You then have a good look all around for any other traffic and if all is well you call out "all clear above and behind, take up slack". At the same time you make the equivalent visual signal which is to swing an extended arm from side to side below your waist. If there is another ground handler available, they should stand slightly ahead and well to one side of the tug pilot and duplicate your signals.
The tug then creeps forwards until the rope is taught. If all is well you then call "all out" and raise your swinging arm above your head. The tug then accelerates and soon you have to trot to keep up. Make sure you are not holding the front of the wing or you could cause some drag and rotate the glider off of the runway. If at any time there is a problem like incoming traffic, a runway obstruction, a fankled rope or whatever, you call "stop" and hold your arm vertically above your head. If the pilot senses a problem he or she should pull the rope release.
At the tug accelerates and you start to trot there should be sufficient airflow to make the glider's ailerons effective so the pilot can keep the wings level with the stick - so you let go and off they fly.
One day when I arrived at the club there was no-one around at the clubhouse. I had a wander and soon spotted a group away across the airfield inside the open doorway of the workshop hanger. When I got there they were carrying a wingless single-seater (DG100) out of the workshop. The idea was to turn it upside down, putting the tail down into a dip in the grass beside the hanger. The reason ? During dismantling for packing into its trailer, a ceramic pulley wheel had slipped into the space between the outer and inner fuselage near the seat. And no amount of poking around had retrieved it while still in an upright position. I lent a hand with turning the glider upside down and shaking it, then lifting it higher with a small hydraulic crane to tip it up steeper. After about 20 minutes the pulley wheel had slipped near enough to an access hole to be teased out by fingertip. Mission accomplished: we returned the glider to the workshop, parking it upside down again to make it easier for the owner to clean & polish the underside. Another example of how a lot of gliding club time is actually spent mucking about on the ground rather than flying.