Recognizing and reacting to tow plane engine failure

So there are tuggles (new word) who are insensitive
to change in engine note and do not monitor the tach!
No surprise, unfortunately. Importnt to check the RPM
at the start with full throttle, and thereafter.
In the PIK 20E I do not need to read the tach for
full power; the noise tells me!
JMF

At 15:14 23 October 2014, BobW wrote:
On 10/23/2014 8:41 AM, son_of_flubber wrote:
It would be useful to hear your stories of how incidents of tow plane
engine failure turned out for you. It seems that there is very little
time
to recognize, react, and recover. What are classic mistakes to make in
this scenario?

Would it be useful to practice 'release and land to the side of the tow
plane path' (and have the tow plane fly a normal departure of course)?
Any
other recommended training exercises?


I've experienced 2 (that spring to mind) incidents of unplanned loss of
tuggie
power while on tow, both above pattern altitude. Neither resulted in a
radio
call - and no waveoff - that I remember. The gradual one was trickier to
detect from my end of the rope, in that the symptoms developed
"non-digitally"
and could easily have been due to towpilot inattention or distraction or
"something" unrelated to a problematic engine issue. Other than the time
constants involved, both were detectable (in no particular order) by
reduction
in climb rate, some loss of airspeed, and "something's different" flags
raising in my noodle. Neither resulted in "an obvious rope bow" or
deceleration before I released in both cases once it was seemed (but
wasn't

"crystal-clearly evident") to me it wasn't your basic tuggie inattention
situation.

Talked with both after the flights. One was (gasp) out of fuel
(slosh-related
unporting as I recall) and the other something related to the throttle
(details forgotten in time) that didn't put the tug down for the day. Both

tuggies thanked me for releasing.

In thinking more about the possibility of a gradual loss of engine power
(e.g.
throttle creep), I concluded it could perhaps be one of the trickier
things

for Joe Glider Pilot to detect should it happen (say) before or
immediately

after becoming airborne. Never happened to me, but there's good reasons
for

mentally preparing for how to recognize and deal with "the abbie-normal
on-tow
possibilities."

Bob W.