Socata Rallye 235C - towing operation experiences

Artur Rutkowski wrote:

Hi,

Is here anybody who has experience with Socata Rally 235 as tow-plane?
Have you been flying this plane as tow-plane or being towed behind? What
are pros and cons? How does this plane look in comparison to competitors
like Pawnee, Maule, Husky, Wilga, Robin and so on.
I'll appreciate any relevant information because my airclub is
considering purchase of such a plane and we don't want to "miss"

Artur

Almost all glider clubs in France use one or more Rallye for aero tow.
IIRC the Army made a gift of them to the clubs or sold them for a very
low price when they didn't use them any more. I never saw a towing Rallye
with less than 180 HP, although some of them have more HPs, so I guess that
180 HP is the minimum for towing operations. My club has a 180 HP Rallye,
we use it as few as possible since we have also a Super Dimona which tows
as well with only 115 HP, and the Rallye now has very few hours before
the next major overhaul, and we are not sure we will do this major overhaul,
considering the age of the airplane. This is fairly representative of the
general feeling about Rallyes : good tow plane, but a real flying airbrake,
so you need power, and they are aging, so the maintenance costs money.

Before the Dimona we had a Robin and every tow pilot preferred the Robin,
I think it has a better aerodynamic and a better power/weight ratio.

Amog the pros, one of them I hope you never need, but we used it: the wing
tips are easy to remove, we had to do it when it landed in the next field
after an engine failure just after take-off and we had to take it back by the
road which has a bridge over it somewhere with a width just a little lower
than the wing span of the Rallye.