Tow Plane Upsets......

When I towed at the Air Force Academy a long time ago in a galaxy far away.....we had a T-handle mounted on the panel right in front of the throttle. As soon as I had full throttle in, I could hold the throttle with the butt of my hand and have my fingers resting on the handle ready for any surprises. I did run into several instances when I couldn't release due to the glider (2-33) swinging high and outside in the turn in a slack rope recovery gone bad. The rope would usually snap tight, the towplane (180 hp Super Cub) would lurch violently sideways and nose down. Due to the side load I could not release from my end, the glider couldn't release, and usually a rope break would solve the problem.

I witnessed a kiting incident of a Ventus with a cg hook right after liftoff at the old Black Forest Glider Port. The Ventus went up, did a wingover from maybe 50 feet a nosed into the ground. The towplane almost had a prop strike but the rope broke, or maybe got released in time. Fortunately the Ventus pilot was not severely injured, but lots of damage on the nose and cockpit area.

As far as the release handle on the Pawnee and Call Air, it seems to me that the handle for the dump gate would give lots of leverage. Same with the AgWagon, if you used the lever for the dump gate instead of spray valve handle.

I'm all for Tost releases on the towplane end. As simple as the Schwiezer hitch is, it is an accident waiting to happen....again.

Just my 2 cents worth.

The Moriarty Ag Wagon was never used as a sprayer. According to the
plaque on the instrument panel it was "Designed and built especially for
Billy R. Shurley". I towed behind him and that plane out of Marfa in
the 80s. He also had the trigger on the stick grip wired to connectors
mounted on the wings at the strut attach points. There was also a
"Master Arm" stitch on the panel. I'm told he mounted shotguns under
the wings to "chase" coyotes on his very large ranch.

On 4/30/2017 7:07 PM, wrote:
When I towed at the Air Force Academy a long time ago in a galaxy far away....we had a T-handle mounted on the panel right in front of the throttle. As soon as I had full throttle in, I could hold the throttle with the butt of my hand and have my fingers resting on the handle ready for any surprises. I did run into several instances when I couldn't release due to the glider (2-33) swinging high and outside in the turn in a slack rope recovery gone bad. The rope would usually snap tight, the towplane (180 hp Super Cub) would lurch violently sideways and nose down. Due to the side load I could not release from my end, the glider couldn't release, and usually a rope break would solve the problem.

I witnessed a kiting incident of a Ventus with a cg hook right after liftoff at the old Black Forest Glider Port. The Ventus went up, did a wingover from maybe 50 feet a nosed into the ground. The towplane almost had a prop strike but the rope broke, or maybe got released in time. Fortunately the Ventus pilot was not severely injured, but lots of damage on the nose and cockpit area.

As far as the release handle on the Pawnee and Call Air, it seems to me that the handle for the dump gate would give lots of leverage. Same with the AgWagon, if you used the lever for the dump gate instead of spray valve handle.

I'm all for Tost releases on the towplane end. As simple as the Schwiezer hitch is, it is an accident waiting to happen....again.

Just my 2 cents worth.

--
Dan, 5J

I don't want to get a thread drift going, but that reminds me of one of our captains who strapped a pair of MAC-10's on his Quicksilver ultralight and strafed the desert!! We used to hunt coyotes out of J-3's and Super Cubs. Several great prop strike stories....
But back to tow planes-- the AgWagon and Pawnees I used to spray and dust (yes, real sulpher dust) with had the dump gate lever on the left side of the cockpit mounted on the floor with a mechanism under the floor leading to the gate itself. As I recall, there was an adjustable stop to regulate the flow of dust from the hopper through the spreader (and into the cockpit--at least I never had fleas). When they convert a Pawnee to a towplane the hopper is usually removed along with all the hardware. Maybe everyone should think twice about taking that lever out. It can provide a lot of leverage on the tow hook.

Usually the hopper is cut down and the upper part is still used as part of the front turtle deck. The dump handle as you discussed has a mechanical screw jack that regulates the opening of the hopper gate. With all that said I would encourage anyone doing a conversion to a towplane to use that hopper dump handle as their tow release handle. It is a great release mechanism.