On Tue, 16 Mar 2021 12:40:05 -0700, wrote:

Does anyone have experience with towing a Grob 103 or similar large
2-seat glider with a tow plane in the 160 HP class.

Yes, I've had a few tows at another UK club in their G.103 Acro III
behind their 150 HP Pawnee. That wasn't a lot of fun on a hot summer
afternoon in the Border country, a bit south of Edinburgh, because the
climb rate was almost nonexistent until the Pawnee eventually picked up a
few knots and was able to climb away, but still quite slowly. The G.103
got off ground in a reasonable distance, but I'd be surprised if we were
at more than 100 ft as we crossed the airfield boundary. Put it this way:
the ground looked closer than I liked for the next minute or two. This
was operating off a large, grass airfield, used for training RAF Typhoon
(heavy fighter) pilots in WW2. On that first visit my first flight was an
introduction to show me the airfield and surroundings, so we were flying
two-up, neither of us being heavy pilots. I got to fly the G.103 again,
this time solo, in the late afternoon.

I subsequently took my Libelle back to the same airfield another couple
of times, both in late October with cooler autumnal air getting quite
cold early to mid morning or late afternoon. On those trips that Pawnee
was able to do quite a bit better with the G.103 (flown two-up for
intrucuctory flights looking for wave and being shown the routes to and
from the local hill. Needless to say that Pawnee was a lot more sprightly
with my Libelle on the back.

I hope the above is useful info.


=====

I think the only slower aero tow I've experienced was two-up in a Duo
behind a 160 hp SuperCub at Wiener Neustadt, the huge grass Austrian
airfield to the south of Vienna. In that case I wouldn't care to say
which aircraft left the ground first - only that the run seemed rather
long!


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org