L-13 Blanik Tow OUt Gear

Not really tow out gear related, but I recall years ago, Bill Seed discovered that the ailerons had a "stop to stop motion" that would get going at about 5-10 MPH tailwind. You might need to restrain the stick or have an obvious, easy to remove gust lock to prevent damaging the ailerons. This mode was encountered when pulling the plane forward, downwind, to the end of the runway for doing auto tows. Wind speed minus walking speed set it off. Something to be aware of.

As for a tow bar, could you make a cuff with a wheel to set the tail in, then pin it to the airframe where the ground handling tail tube gets poked through? Your wing wheel is going to have a really big cuff!

Good luck!

Steve Leonard

On Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 10:51:02 AM UTC-4, Steve Leonard wrote:
Not really tow out gear related, but I recall years ago, Bill Seed discovered that the ailerons had a "stop to stop motion" that would get going at about 5-10 MPH tailwind. You might need to restrain the stick or have an obvious, easy to remove gust lock to prevent damaging the ailerons. This mode was encountered when pulling the plane forward, downwind, to the end of the runway for doing auto tows. Wind speed minus walking speed set it off. Something to be aware of.

As for a tow bar, could you make a cuff with a wheel to set the tail in, then pin it to the airframe where the ground handling tail tube gets poked through? Your wing wheel is going to have a really big cuff!

Good luck!

Steve Leonard

My club in Germany operated a L13 until the left wing came off in mid-flight. Originally, the L13 only had a tail-skid and the ground handling dolly we had was just like Steve described: an A-shaped frame with bushings on each end to put an aluminum tube through them and the fuselage and a well for the skid. There was a caster wheel with a pneumatic tire below that well. Because the L13 is a 'tail-sitter' no additional fastenings between the tail skid and the dolly was required.
Later, we had the factory replace the tail skid with a caster tail wheel so the dolly became obsolete.
It would be quite conceivable to install an off-center tow bar on that dolly and make an wing-wheel with an open cuff so one wouldn't have to deal with the 'tip-tanks'.
Uli
'AS'