On Monday, February 9, 2015 at 7:43:05 PM UTC-6, Ventus_a wrote:
;896658 Wrote:
I've towed with the TOST reel on the Skyline Soaring Club's Pawnee, the
Rex Mayes reel on a tow plane I bought when SoaringNV opened, and
Bumper's proprietary reel on another SoaringNV tow plane. All had
guillotines: I never used that feature. I liked having the spool
between my feet so I could see it spooling out and would be reminded to
reel it in after glider release.

The best reel was Bumper's, but as he says, he has zero interest in
building more. I don't blame him: he spent a whole lot of time on the
installations he made for SoaringNV as he trouble-shooted (?) little
features of the design.

One thing to remember about reel systems with guillotines is that if you
use the guillotine you lose the rope and the weak link. At least with a
hook on the tow plane tail you can drop the line and hope the glider
pilot is sharp enough to remember to bring it back to the field so you
can re-use it.

I liked using a reel mainly so I didn't have to approach high over
fences, power lines, trees, etc. This is particularly important if you
have a short towplane runway.

One thing to keep in mind with a reel is that if you break a rope, have
it jump off the reel as it is reeling in, or have to guillotine it, you
are probably out of service for about 30 minutes, maybe more. With a
tail hook you just clip another rope on and start up again.


Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't the rope still be attached to the
glider along with the weak link after the rope is guillotined at the tug
end unless of course you are towing off a belly hook with a back
realease

:-) Colin




--
Ventus_a

Yes Colin, and that's why you have a radio to hear the tow pilot tell you that he/she cut the cord. You can then drop the towline over the glider field so the valuable Tost rings can be retrieved (at least that's what I would do).