A little bit higher and a little bit faster… This lesson shows you can land ahead, but there is a limit.

Learning Points
This lesson shows the glider well established in the climb before suffering a cable break. In this case the land ahead option has almost disappeared (without going into the overshoot area). On a larger airfield, we could land ahead from a much higher failure – but not here. Following the BGA guidelines:
Immediate Actions
The actions are the same as always. Assuming you have completed the previous lesson, let’s focus on the differences here:
Recover to the appropriate recovery attitude, while checking the airspeed.
The immediate action is to reach an appropriate recovery attitude. This we do.
Wait to regain the approach speed
We Waited, Waited, Waited.
Assess the situation
This situation doesn’t look much different to the previous one, but is slightly higher when the failure occurred, and we are faster as we recover. That makes the land ahead a little tighter. The demonstration illustrates that we have very limited time in which to make the decision.
Plan a safe approach and landing
We are going to land ahead, but we must descend steeply. When speed has built sufficiently, we will deploy full airbrakes to descend as steeply as possible, and then treat it like any other landing.
Release the wire
Now you have a plan, release the wire, with two pulls.
Check the airspeed again
Execute the plan, and monitor airspeed.
Continue to monitor it
Airspeed is important after all.
Fly the approach and landing or a circuit variation to it
The full airbrake approach does the job and we stop within the airfield.
Scenario and Demonstration
This demonstration takes place with a ten knot headwind, at a relatively small airfield.
The video is best viewed in YouTube in Full Screen mode, to easily see the on-screen messages during the demonstration. Use view, pause and rewind as needed to grasp the content and timing of the messages displayed, then focus on the action.
Performing the Exercise
The exercise is set up so that when you Try Lesson, the launch failure can occur at any point. You may therefore want to read all these winch launch failure lessons before trying them. The process is the same every time – you just have to get into the appropriate recovery attitude, wait, achieve the recovery speed, and make and execute a plan. Simples!
Condor shows the pilot pulling the cable release in the demonstrations, whereas in fact that was the point where the winch had failed (cable break). Your first action in any winch failure is to get into the appropriate recovery attitude, and only then deal with the cable release.
Condor is generous towards gliders in ground effect – they will float for miles. Seek instruction on whether you should use airbrakes in the eventuality of a very low level break. Condor requires it, but in the real world, airbrakes must be used with enormous caution at low level.
Further Reading and References
Gliding From Passenger to Pilot, 2nd Edition: Page 102-105
BGA Instructors’ Manual, 4th Edition: Section 4, Chapter 16, Page 7-9
BGA Instructors’ Reference Cards: Ex 11c