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Old August 26th 19, 10:42 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Jonathan St. Cloud
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Default Tow plane types/mods for high density altitude glider towing

On Monday, August 26, 2019 at 1:53:15 PM UTC-7, Ross wrote:
Best tow plane ( well helicopter) was a Hughes 500 D at the Warbirds airshow in NZ and the opening of the world gliding champs.
Take-off roll was about 60m and it went up at 1600ft per min.
The trick at the top was slowing the helicopter down till the glider stalled and hung on the belly hook.
Need to get the videos of this uploaded sometime. Make for great viewing


1600 ft/m bet the helicopter pilot could have pulled more torque. The 500 I was flying would do 2200 fpm with a load all day