On Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 12:47:47 PM UTC-6, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 11:23:33 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Maybe some might think differently about the wisdom of fitting nose books to all gliders (where possible) if they had lost a colleague to a kiting belly hook equipped glider he was towing.

When a tow is going normally it makes little difference where the hook is but when the glider has begun to kite it makes a big difference.

That is an excellent point. It can also make a difference in marginal take-off conditions, crosswind, narrow strips, long grass, stuff you might find on an aero retrieve, etc. And low time/new pilots especially may not have the judgement to not try that, especially if they see other gliders towing from there.

Can you aero tow a glider easily with a CG hook? Sure you can. Are there benefit to having a nose hook? Sure there are. Should you install one... uh depends (Clubs and low-time pilots I would hope err on the side of having nose tow hooks).

In a club ship, if there is a nose-hook option, installation should be done.. We have an LS-4b that came with only a CG hoot. It took a while, but eventually a member took a launch excursion and nearly collided with some private gliders on the launch point tie-downs. A factory kit was ordered and installed.

I mentioned previously that many years ago at least three Colorado Std Cirrus owners had 'bras' that slipped over the nose and were retained by the CG hook and were towed from the front of the 'bra'. Upon release, rope and 'bra' followed the tow plane home. At the time, they probably didn't have a retrofit option.

Frank Whiteley