Auto Tow

Anymouse

Anymouse

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Total Stud Bush Pilot
Seeing how Tony seems to be the soaring guru on this board, this post is directed mainly at him.

I'm going to be building a house and hangar on an airpark sometime next year. After recovering from the financial hit, I'm considering purchasing a glider so I can have some fun. Unfortunately, there's probably no one around that can tow me with an airplane, so auto tow will probably have to suffice.

The runway is a bit more than 4700' and I'm sure I can get a local to pull me with their truck. Is there anything I need to do for auto tow? Special equipment? I'm sure I'll get all this info when I get my sign off for auto tow, but I'm just curious for now.
 
ive never done auto tow. it used to be very popular at our club but has fallen out of style due to a general lack of proficiency. we had a chevy pickup with a 454. half of it was rusted away so it accelerated pretty quick. a good idea would be to set up the rope with some sort of tensionometer in it, and you drive at a certain tension, not speed. ive heard this sort of setup described but cant remember how it worked. involved a hydraulic cylinder i think. just like with a winch or aerotow launch, you have to be very careful and there are critical points in the tow. it can be very tempting to haul back on the stick and zoom up immediately on an auto tow. apparently it is really exciting. can get really exciting if the rope breaks there too...

ill direct Matt Michael towards this thread, hes got a fair amount of auto tow experience and may be able to help you out more.
 
I was really hoping for a minimal amount of setup (other people's stuff you know). If a lot of stuff needs to be added, I may just buy a beater to use specifically for towing.

All of this is still in the "it would be neat" phase.
 
i dont think you would need much additional to do a basic auto tow setup. there is always a difference between a basic setup and the primo setup. i think there is a way to put a towhook on a standard hitch ball and then all you need is a long rope.
 
It shouldn't be too hard to set up some sort of tension metering setup. You should be able to get by with a load cell, and some basic circuitry to get yourself a fancy digital readout in the truck.

But alas I am only a computer geek, so you may want to have tony do the engineering bits :)

Pete
 
tonycondon said:
i dont think you would need much additional to do a basic auto tow setup. there is always a difference between a basic setup and the primo setup. i think there is a way to put a towhook on a standard hitch ball and then all you need is a long rope.
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That's exactly what I was thinking of, but didn't know if it would be that simple. The only time I've seen auto tows were on truck commercials. (One was over ten years ago showing the glider quickly climbing behind a truck and the other was just a few years ago showing a DC-3 being towed by a truck). The tension meter sounds interesting though.

What's really neat is that the airpark I'm building at sits on top of a hill. The next closest airport is roughly four miles (if that) away and 755 of altitude loss. Assuming that I'm heading in the right direction and get at least 50 feet (or so), I could probably just glide down hill to it if necessary.
 
ah that'd be nice. perhaps some ridge lift to work if wind is right, plus some room to get away and thermal. my understanding from previous operations at our club were that on our 5700 foot runway you could get about 1000 feet up. maybe more or less depending on the wind.
 
tonycondon said:
ah that'd be nice. perhaps some ridge lift to work if wind is right, plus some room to get away and thermal. my understanding from previous operations at our club were that on our 5700 foot runway you could get about 1000 feet up. maybe more or less depending on the wind.
Click to expand...
Until Matt chimes in...

I did my ground launch (auto tow) endorsement at Tony's club a few years ago. I believe we had 1000 feet of rope, and easily got 700 feet with two of us in the 2-33. There was definitely room to use a longer rope, and a lighter ship could easily gain decent altitude.

The setup on the truck end was a ball hitch, with the "trailer" part welded to a very heavy-duty hinge, so that you not only got lateral movement from the ball, but vertical pivot with the hinge. I think the setup was drawn out in Soaring magazine many years ago. Anyway, a standard Schweitzer hitch was attached to the other end of the hinge, with a rope tied to the driver's side mirror to actuate the release if necessary. Pretty simple system.

Much like tailwheel endorsements, ground launch endorsements are often given with minimal training. If you're going to be doing them on a regular basis (as opposed to getting the endorsement just to say you have it), I'd recommend finding someone who will train you very thoroughly, including tow failures, release failures, and both too-fast and too-slow tows.

Hopefully Matt will show up and enlighten us further...I just have the endorsement so that I can say I have it, apparenty. ;)

Fly safe!

David
 
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