The idea of deliberately diving the tug when this situation is
recognised is interesting - maintain energy, maintain elevator
authority, get rid of the glider, avoid the stall - sounds good. But I
guess the upset has already happened when the tug pilot first
recognises the situation. And who'd want to push into an even
steeper dive at 200'?
At 15:04 18 May 2020, Tom BravoMike wrote:
On Monday, May 18, 2020 at 2:40:26 AM UTC-5, Marton KSz
wrote:
I found this diagram last week:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nLpWwLHFmgwE5dEM9
Here's my interpretation:
The system of the connected towplane + glider has a center of
gravity,
somewhere along the towrope, closer the towplane.
When the kiting begins, the system of the two connected masses
start
rotating around this CG (just like groundlooping a tailwheel
aircraft).
However, since the glider is lighter, it rotates faster, which makes
the
impression that the towplane slingshots it.
Also, the glider has wings, and faster airspeed on the wings
means more
lift - the glider wants to go even higher.
All the energy for the extra lift + speed has to come from
somewhe the
supply is the kinetic energy of the towplane. As the kiting
aggravates, the
towplane drastically slows down. First it runs out of elevator
control,
then stalls.
That's quite an interesting picture, helping to understand the
process and
the discussion about the (initially) small angles.
The 800 ft minimum for the towplane to recover from a dive seems
a lot.
Could speak for using eg. touring motorgliders as tugs in hope
they could
recover faster.