On Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:47:06 -0700 (PDT), Bruno
wrote:


Thanks for sharing! Does the initial tow seem a little bit hairy to
be flying over the water that low? How comfortable would you be? Not
sure if they are even 200 ft above the water.

I was there, as a tutor in the course; that's the place I used to fly
from for a long time (www.acao.it)
The towplane is a 235hp Stinson L-5 in excellent shape. The agreed
procedure is to accelerate up to at least 130 km/h, maybe 140 on many
occasions. A few seconds after having passed above the tree line at
the end of the airfield, we have the 50m altitude which most of the
times will allow a safe turn back if the rope breaks.

If the rope breaks at lower altitude, we'll just land in the water
(turn off all electronic equipment). I've never seen this happen.

The real difficulty, on this airfield, is when a strong N-NO wind
blows (60-80° from the right). Then there are wild rotors at very low
level, at the end of the runway. We need to maintain a high airspeed
in order to have sufficient aileron authority, especially on the
glider. When things get very critical, our tow pilots and instructors
usually stop the operations. In between, there are a number of
situations when only some selected members of the club are allowed to
take-off as a pilot in command.

aldo cernezzi
www.voloavela.it