- Sun Apr 19, 2015 4:50 pm
#368997
I don't understand this at all. To me the grapevine grip is the way to go for good control of angle-of-attack during a long ground run. See previous post. Steve
T9HUBB wrote:In Colorado where I fly, the grapevine grip can get you into a lot of trouble. We take off from shallow slopes at six to thirteen thousand feet MSL. This means that many launches use from six to ten or even more running steps. From my observation of the videos of the grapevine grip launches at the radial ramp in Tennessee, the launch by NMERider on this thread, and many launches from the international competitions the grapevine grip auto-rotates the upper body from upright to horizontal in about 4 steps which forces the pilot to the base tube and ends his run prematurely.
Not to nitpick the NMERider launch, but notice that he barely clears the end of the ramp. His feet are too far behind him at that point to continue to run. The pilot takes six steps where eight would have been better. When pilots say that the grapevine grip makes it easier to transition to the basetube I contend that it forces you to the basetube. This is all fine and dandy if the launch quickly presents open airspace, but if you need to run farther you are out of luck.