poor lateral control on a slow tow?

At 06:24 01 January 2011, Anne wrote:
On Jan 1, 12:38=A0am, Tony V wrote:
Bruce Hoult wrote:
....Since then I tow with the Pawnee horizontal stabilizer in the
same
position against the forward parts of the tug no matter what glider
I'm in and just ignore the horizon.

Yes, use the tug as a reference. Using the horizon doesn't work on
real
hazy days and it doesn't work in the mountains.

Tony V.

John Cochrane has the answer right, at least for standard class ships
like the Discus 2. I can verify that you run out of elevator control
at tow speeds significantly lower than the free-flight stall speed.
The reason is that the tow rope applies a downward thrust at the nose
- I have wing tip-camera video that confirms the tow rope has a
significant downward pull on the nose. I always try to stay away from
tow plane wash, so don't think that's a major component. I've never
experienced as marked a behavior in flapped ships, so I put it down to
AOA.

Mike
Surely LOW TOW has many handling advantages and I have been very
comfortable with this method gliding in Aus. At least the tow rope has an
upward componenet.
John

At 10:38 01 January 2011, John Vella Grech wrote:
At 06:24 01 January 2011, Anne wrote:
On Jan 1, 12:38=A0am, Tony V wrote:
Bruce Hoult wrote:
....Since then I tow with the Pawnee horizontal stabilizer in the
same
position against the forward parts of the tug no matter what glider
I'm in and just ignore the horizon.

Yes, use the tug as a reference. Using the horizon doesn't work on
real
hazy days and it doesn't work in the mountains.

Tony V.

John Cochrane has the answer right, at least for standard class ships
like the Discus 2. I can verify that you run out of elevator control
at tow speeds significantly lower than the free-flight stall speed.
The reason is that the tow rope applies a downward thrust at the nose
- I have wing tip-camera video that confirms the tow rope has a
significant downward pull on the nose. I always try to stay away from
tow plane wash, so don't think that's a major component. I've never
experienced as marked a behavior in flapped ships, so I put it down to
AOA.

Mike
Surely LOW TOW has many handling advantages and I have been very
comfortable with this method gliding in Aus. At least the tow rope has
an
upward componenet.
John




There do seem to be many advantages to low tow - I'm not sure why it's
not used much in the UK. On the Junior the rope apparently fouls the nose
in low tow, so perhaps its a problem with some hook positions?

In thermic conditions I release from tow as soon as I think I'm entering
soarable lift - I don't hang on until an arbitrary height like 2,000' is
reached. (I have been known to release at 700' - but my club now charges
for a minimum of 1,000' even if one releases earlier so I tend to go a
bit higher now - I might have become a bit wiser as well!)

Since I must release from the high-tow position to ensure adequate
clearance from the metal rings on the rope immediately after I release -
if I'm in low tow I must go up to high-tow first - by which time I'm
well past the lift and will probably fail to find it. Hence my preference
for high-tow during a launch into a soarable sky. During a retrieve I will
often go low-tow.


At 11:45 01 January 2011, Doug Greenwell wrote:

There do seem to be many advantages to low tow - I'm not sure why it's
not used much in the UK. On the Junior the rope apparently fouls the
nose
in low tow, so perhaps its a problem with some hook positions?