Two excellent posts above from Roy and Burt. I learned partially on auto tow, with maybe 25 launches done by that method over the space of two winters (we would put the towplane away for the winter and revert to auto towing).. Roy summarizes the operational aspects beautifully. As far as equipment, we used "junker" big-block American iron from the early and mid 1970s. The Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon was ideal, since it has a built-in observer seat in the rear. We found that for whatever reason, auto-towing seemed to put a lot of wear and tear on the transition and drive train. Moderately hard acceleration with the load of the glider followed by near-panic stopping repeatedly at the other end meant that I got to be a pretty decent auto mechanic. At our facility, we had 3,000 foot paved with 800 or so grass overrun. With the glider's tail right in the weeds, the car was just on the runway. That gave us the full 3,000 to accelerate, cruise, then stop. We normally got about 600 feet of altitude, though 700 or even 800 was possible if the wind was right down the runway.

So, it's definitely a viable option, especially for early training. Practically, we ended up getting maybe 8-10 launches during a session before something broke on the vehicle or we had a big rope break. We spent a lot of time fixing per every minute of aviating, but when you're in college, $5 tows are attractive!

Erik Mann (P3)