Any tow pilots out there?

Ozone

Ozone

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
206
Location
Minnesota
Display Name
Ozone
Home Airfield
KSGS (power) KSYN (soar)
i have a question for any tow pilots out there: my club is trying to figure out the best way to mount a rear view mirror on the strut of a PA-18. We have a mirror inside, but no one likes it. If anyone here has ideas/pictures, I'd love to hear about your solutions.
 
Flew CalAirs and they had automotive style ones mounted on the fuselage, worked great.
 
The Super Cubs that I towed with had a large convex mirror on the left strut. I believe we got them at a truck stop & modified the brackets.

I'm setting up my 182A to tow gliders. My tow hook kit will be here next week & I'll need a mirror mounted too. I'll start checking out the truck stops.
 
saddletramp said:
The Super Cubs that I towed with had a large convex mirror on the left strut. I believe we got them at a truck stop & modified the brackets.

I'm setting up my 182A to tow gliders. My tow hook kit will be here next week & I'll need a mirror mounted too. I'll start checking out the truck stops.
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Do you have any pictures of the type of mirror and setup you use? I was at fleet farm today and they come in all sizes. I liked the 5" round, but it seems like it would cause some drag hanging out on the strut.
 
Actually, I found a great mirror set up on the CAP Glider website. You can fabricate the mount yourself & install whatever mirror you desire.

If you can't find through a search engine I will try to find it again.

As far as drag goes...you're towing gliders it's about rate of climb not speed.
 
I never found the mirror to be much help (guessing it was 6" x 4", homemade mount on rubber-protected strut). Seems like I could always tell by a/c performance and heading/attitude if the glider was doing something unusual.
 
Any arguments in favor of using a convex mirror, or is flat better?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I never found the mirror to be much help (guessing it was 6" x 4", homemade mount on rubber-protected strut). Seems like I could always tell by a/c performance and heading/attitude if the glider was doing something unusual.
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I agree that they're not very useful in flight but seeing hand signals & what the glider is doing before takeoff is in valuable.

A few years back a tow pilot was killed at my home field when a glider forgot to close his spoilers on takeoff. One wonders if the pilot was used to checking things in his mirrors.
 
Flat is better, we have 4x6 flat mirrors mounted inside the Pawnee Tow.
They are mounted left and right just above the instruments, no problems seeing the glider on tow.

I've seen the wide "race car" style mirror mounted high inside a super cub. Never flew with it, it was told it's not the best.

Anything mounted to the strut, don't drill into the strut. Make a mount that wraps around the strut and with a thin felt type cushion to protect the strut. Check often for corrosion under the mount.
 
I've used a round, convex, mirror mounted on the strut of a 150/150. Can't remember the diameter, maybe 5-6 inches. It's OK on the ground. In the air vibration made it about worthless for seeing much detail, but I was able to still maintain visual contact. After release, I was never able to see the rope, I always had to turn my head around if I wanted to verify the rope was still attached and that wasn't easy unless I loosened the shoulder harness.
 
I use a hand mirror on a strap around my neck. When I want to look behind, I just grab it and hold it up to check what's going on behind the towplane.
 
Ozone said:
i have a question for any tow pilots out there: my club is trying to figure out the best way to mount a rear view mirror on the strut of a PA-18. We have a mirror inside, but no one likes it. If anyone here has ideas/pictures, I'd love to hear about your solutions.
Click to expand...

What about a camera that links to your smart phone or Ipad just point it backwards, you mount it on the strut, a belly inspection plate or on the landing gear as some do with Go Pros etc , lots of mounting solutions these days, or have mutiple cameras for over kill and you can even record to prove that the lousy flying was the glider pilot and not you. Some newer glider pilots could not follow the tow plane and then blamed the tow pilot, that being me, in younger days at a glider school. Then there were the German guys that you did not know were back there, so smooth they were, some were ex Luftwaffe pilots, fun times building time.
 
After one of my own tows when I was solo for one of the first times, the towpilot came up to me afterwards and said, "Nice job of boxing the wake."

I said, " But I was...oh." I can't remember the circumstances, but I was probably solo in the 2-place and fighting the trim for a solo cg and bouncing around.

I've towed guys/ladies you couldn't tell were back there, and guys that just beat me up.
 
BillTIZ said:
Flat is better, we have 4x6 flat mirrors mounted inside the Pawnee Tow.
They are mounted left and right just above the instruments, no problems seeing the glider on tow.

I've seen the wide "race car" style mirror mounted high inside a super cub. Never flew with it, it was told it's not the best.

Anything mounted to the strut, don't drill into the strut. Make a mount that wraps around the strut and with a thin felt type cushion to protect the strut. Check often for corrosion under the mount.
Click to expand...
Our supercub has the race style mirror inside and mounted up high; it is a pain in the butt. When you say you had mirrors mounted inside but above the instruments, do you have a picture? That sounds intriguing. I could see having something mounted to the "v" crossbars working well if mounted properly.
 
Ozone said:
Our supercub has the race style mirror inside and mounted up high; it is a pain in the butt. When you say you had mirrors mounted inside but above the instruments, do you have a picture? That sounds intriguing. I could see having something mounted to the "v" crossbars working well if mounted properly.
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I'll get a picture for you.

We don't have the V bars in front of our face. The top of the instrument panel is round metal, so drilled mounts for windows on each far corner and looking out the side windows. A Pawnee cabin narrows back more than a supercub as ther is no back seat to keep the fuselage wide.
 
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