Tow DROID

http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...o-uas-air-tow/

The glider is so far out of position that I'm surprised the tow pilot has
not released him.

....And did you see that little rigging stand? Where was the solo rigging
device?


"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
...
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...o-uas-air-tow/

On 06/02/14 06:38, Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...o-uas-air-tow/

Wow. They are behind the curve

Search youtube for combinations of rc/glider/towed and similar,
and you will see many many videos of rc enthusiasts doing just that!

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014 10:38:00 PM UTC-8, Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...o-uas-air-tow/

And ... they get paid to do this ...
Eric Bick

On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 09:21:26 -0700, Dan Marotta wrote:

The glider is so far out of position that I'm surprised the tow pilot
has not released him.

....but did you notice that the towline attaches to the tug on top of the
wing at the CG position? That's SOP on the RC world and I imagine it
makes the glider position a lot less critical since it can't jerk the tow
plane's tail around.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:32:14 +0000, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 06/02/14 06:38, Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...-demonstrates-
autonomous-uas-to-uas-air-tow/

Wow. They are behind the curve

Search youtube for combinations of rc/glider/towed and similar,
and you will see many many videos of rc enthusiasts doing just that!

I thought that too, until I read the text a bit more carefully. They
verified that the UAVs were trimmed correctly, etc by hand flying a tow
or two before they did a number of completely autonomous flights.

Its just unfortunate that the main picture shows one of the manually
flown launches and that they didn't publish any pictures of an antonomous
launch.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On 06/02/14 21:32, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:32:14 +0000, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 06/02/14 06:38, Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...-demonstrates-
autonomous-uas-to-uas-air-tow/

Wow. They are behind the curve

Search youtube for combinations of rc/glider/towed and similar,
and you will see many many videos of rc enthusiasts doing just that!

I thought that too, until I read the text a bit more carefully. They
verified that the UAVs were trimmed correctly, etc by hand flying a tow
or two before they did a number of completely autonomous flights.

Its just unfortunate that the main picture shows one of the manually
flown launches and that they didn't publish any pictures of an antonomous
launch.

You're right, but you do have to read it carefully to see past all
the future tense and "...to evaluate the research pilot's ability to..."

The biggest clue is the "autonomous" in the URL!

On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 22:38:33 +0000, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 06/02/14 21:32, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:32:14 +0000, Tom Gardner wrote:

On 06/02/14 06:38, Frank Whiteley wrote:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/201...drydens-droid-
demonstrates-
autonomous-uas-to-uas-air-tow/

Wow. They are behind the curve

Search youtube for combinations of rc/glider/towed and similar,
and you will see many many videos of rc enthusiasts doing just that!

I thought that too, until I read the text a bit more carefully. They
verified that the UAVs were trimmed correctly, etc by hand flying a tow
or two before they did a number of completely autonomous flights.

Its just unfortunate that the main picture shows one of the manually
flown launches and that they didn't publish any pictures of an
antonomous launch.

You're right, but you do have to read it carefully to see past all the
future tense and "...to evaluate the research pilot's ability to..."

The biggest clue is the "autonomous" in the URL!

Yes, you're right: the description is not at all well written. It would
have helped a lot if the guy at the next desk had read the text and then
helped to rewrite it.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Returning for a moment to the 19th century tow hook designs that are on most tugs.

Why does the pilot need to pull the release if the glider kites? Why is the release for a deadly tow position not fully automatic? Is a simple purely mechanical, totally foolproof and 100% automatic release not possible?

As the guy in the glider, I would be fine with a 100% automatic release. If I kite, release me immediately.

The standard setup is to use a Schweizer hook which is rigidly mounted in
pitch and can swivel around the yaw axis. So, if the glider kites, it
exerts sufficient force on the release mechanism that the tow pilot may not
have the strength to pull the lever. It's also possible that, should the
glider get too wide, the axis of the release cable is too far off center to
operate the release. So... Stay in position on tow!

The Tost release does not suffer from this design problem. I've also seen
the Schweizer release mounted to a heavy duty gate hinge for use in ground
launching. This allows it to align with the axis of the rope so there's no
difficulty with the driver or observer releasing the rope. I don't think
you'd get such a system approved for mounting on the tail of an aircraft.

"son_of_flubber" wrote in message
...
Returning for a moment to the 19th century tow hook designs that are on
most tugs.

Why does the pilot need to pull the release if the glider kites? Why is
the release for a deadly tow position not fully automatic? Is a simple
purely mechanical, totally foolproof and 100% automatic release not
possible?

As the guy in the glider, I would be fine with a 100% automatic release.
If I kite, release me immediately.