On Thursday, February 20, 2014 1:31:56 PM UTC-7, Martin Gregorie wrote:

Back to some sort of bridle from the wingtips so any pulling vector is

through the CG (or close).



I'm sure that would work well in the air, but isn't there a potential

problem during the landing roll-out? With no tension on the tow rope it

seems to me that you've got a U-shaped loop of rope dragging on the

ground behind the tow plane which would provide considerable drag on a

grass field if it isn't recently mown. Would this also be a problem at

the start of the take-off roll?

Well, you could make the bridle in two pieces that connect at the release, and come apart when the glider is released; you would now have a long towrope trailing one wingtip and a short one trailing the other.

Starting to get more complicated, of course...

Kirk