poor lateral control on a slow tow?

At 17:25 05 January 2011, cernauta wrote:
On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:40:53 -0000, "Doug"
wrote:

Is poor handling at low speed on tow a common experience? I'd
appreciate

any thoughts/comments/war stories ... particularly bad tug/glider/speed

combinations, incidents of wing drop during a tow etc etc?

Yes, it is common. I use to fly mainly at competitions, and among the
5-10 tow pilots, there's always at least one who, despite being
briefed by the towmaster, flies too slowly.

In my personal experience, it happened to me 3 times in a double
seater (Janus B and DuoDiscus). I don't remember any occurrence in my
single seater.
I can describe it as being unable to raise the nose. As the towplane
was flying below 100 km/h, I just couldn't match the climbing rate
with the glider, so I was more and more into the propwash. A gentle
pull up wouldn't work; pulling more hits the stop and the glider feels
like it's sinking.

I also cannot find an easy and believable explanation for this
phenomenon. I didn't recognize a lack of _lateral_ control, anyway.

aldo cernezzi


Interesting - most people are reporting problems with lateral control
(which seems to have a reasonably simple explanation), but running out of
nose-up pitch control also seems to occur ... and is harder to understand.


Did you notice any kind of change in elevator control force before you hit
the stops?
Did you experience this effect with any specific type of tug? Derek
Copeland has decribed a similar loss of elevator authority when towed by a
motor glider.

Doug