(Liam Finley) wrote in message . com...
Disadvantages
1. uses 75' more runway length - less room to land ahead or land back
incase of a rope break.
Actually the length of the rope does not effect the amount or runway
available to the glider. Think about it.

OK, I thought about it. [ouch that thinkin' kinda hurt]

And yes there is still the full length of the runway available to the
_glider_. But that is only half the story. The glider+towplane
combination does not gain altitude until the towplane takes off. In
the case of our "cezzna" 175 the towplane does not take off until
signficantly after the glider.

[I like to at least pretend that I care about the safety of the
towpilot also. The shorter the rope the more engine out options he
has.]

As an extreem example to illustrate the point: If you used a 1000'
tow rope on a 2000' runway the towplane would not have climbed very
much by the end of the runway.

Chris