Auto Towing a 1-26

I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 7:07:34 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

You do need ground launch training and the associated endorsement.
To ground launch with a reasonable degree of success, the glider will need a CG type hook. Some A/B/C's had such hooks. I've never seen an E with one.
It is not likely you will get 600 feet with 1000 feet of rope on a nose hook.
It sounds like you are trying to do this on the cheap. May be false economy.
FWIW
UH

from FAR 61.31.....

(j) Additional training required for operating a glider. (1) No person may act as pilot in command of a glider—

(i) Using ground-tow procedures, unless that person has satisfactorily accomplished ground and flight training on ground-tow procedures and operations, and has received an endorsement from an authorized instructor who certifies in that pilot's logbook that the pilot has been found proficient in ground-tow procedures and operations;

(ii) Using aerotow procedures, unless that person has satisfactorily accomplished ground and flight training on aerotow procedures and operations, and has received an endorsement from an authorized instructor who certifies in that pilot's logbook that the pilot has been found proficient in aerotow procedures and operations; or

(iii) Using self-launch procedures, unless that person has satisfactorily accomplished ground and flight training on self-launch procedures and operations, and has received an endorsement from an authorized instructor who certifies in that pilot's logbook that the pilot has been found proficient in self-launch procedures and operations.

(2) The holder of a glider rating issued prior to August 4, 1997, is considered to be in compliance with the training and logbook endorsement requirements of this paragraph for the specific operating privilege for which the holder is already qualified.

from the reference below: "It is essential to use a center of gravity (CG)towhook that has an automatic back release feature."

glider handbook, chapter 7 (ground launch starts on page 11), which is online he
https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...a/gfh_ch07.pdf

On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 6:07:34 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

My club was founded using ground launch. Ground launch is a great, economical way to get into the air. However, it is not so simple as a bucket full of rope and a truck.

Besides a glider and rope, you will need:
Ground launch endorsement
CG hook on the glider
Weak link on the glider end of the rope (or assurance that the rope is of appropriate breaking strength)
Tow release or guillotine on the tow vehicle (or some rapid and assured means of releasing the rope from the tow vehicle if the glider cannot release)..
Enough room for the rope to fall so that the inevitable cross wind will not drop your rope in the trees, on powerlines, other aircraft, people, etc. Those tow rings on the end of the rope will put quite a dent aircraft, people's heads, etc. if you drop it on them.

Ground launching off a nose hook will severely limit your launch height. However, the big problem is that it is horrifically dangerous. CG hooks will back release on their own if you overfly the launch vehicle. The nose hook will not and when you start arcing towards the ground it's going to be under so much tension that you will not be able to release at all. Counting on advertised breaking strength for rope is a crapshoot. A mechanical weak link is best. Tost (the tow ring people) figured out all this stuff a long time ago and they sell well engineered hardware for ground launch.

Unless you are launching into wind higher than the stall speed of the glider, you will not get more than half your rope length in altitude at best. Usually, you will get around 1/3 the rope length. Get at least 1500' of rope.

Same inputs as the others. FWIW, my club had a pretty active auto-tow program with a big-block Oldsmobile wagon and a 2-22, 2-33, and 1-26. I probably had 30 auto tows while I was a student and post solo.

My number one recommendation would be to get someone who knows what they are doing to come out and teach you and your driver. Despite the "simplicity", there are any number of ways to kill yourself and hurt your driver. It's quite possible to end up at a very awkward altitude which requires immediate and decisive action to avoid a real problem. That's both a benefit and a risk of this approach.

Erik Mann (P3)

On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 5:07:34 PM UTC-6, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

One of the Seymour 'boys' told me they used to auto tow there in a 1-26 and sometimes kite on the rope at the end of the runway for 'longer' flights when the wind was strong enough.

On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 11:21:16 PM UTC-5, Frank Whiteley wrote:
On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 5:07:34 PM UTC-6, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

One of the Seymour 'boys' told me they used to auto tow there in a 1-26 and sometimes kite on the rope at the end of the runway for 'longer' flights when the wind was strong enough.

We did the kiting thing in a 2-33 at Caesar Creek once-upon-a-time. Mark Conner and Guy Byars were the instigators, I believe. Mark had a bucket of rope and a van. 1300' of rope IIRC. Mark's van had a tow release on a trailer tongue. The day I was present, it was blue cold and the wind was howling down the runway. The van would take off down the turf runway (2800') and get the glider airborne. At the end of the runway, the van would stop and we'd just hold the stick back in the glider and continue to climb until the rope back released. The wind was so strong that the glider would just kite on up until release. I remember lookng down and seeing the van stopped at the end of the runway, almost directly under us, and we were still climbing. At release, we'd make an immediate 360 turn. In the time it took to make that 360, we'd already be blown downwind of the landing spot. Seems like we got up to 900' or more on some of those kiting launches. Snow showers blowing through would sometimes make the top of the launch IFR. At one point one of the Maurer brothers reported 300 fpm up in one of the snow squalls. Good times!

I totally see peeps wanting this thread deleted, while outside time limits for the FAA, still better for no record.

But.......
I seem to remember retrieves in the SW for a 1-26 where the crew vehicle towed the glider until a cross power wire.
Glider dropped the rope, landed, got hooked up, went to the next wire.

Stupid crap some of us did way back when....l.l

Yes, I left names out.
Yes, most of us would know them.
Let's us just say, "Pickle"...,,,,,,,,nuff said.

And no, it was not I.........

On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 7:07:34 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?

Sign over your life insurance policy to me first...

On 8/11/2017 6:10 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 7:07:34 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I'm a new glider pilot looking at purchasing a 1-26.

I'm looking at gaining the flights and experience to get the Commercial Glider and adding the CFI-G to my existing CFI-A.

I envision doing auto tows at my local 3200ft airport. I'll hopefully be getting to 600AGL to just do laps around the pattern. I'd plan to use a 1000ft rope and my 8.1L Chevy Suburban.

What's everyone's take on auto towing a 1-26 mostly just for the fun of very quick flights? Do I need a logbook endorcement for ground launching?
Sign over your life insurance policy to me first...

Why do you say that? My former partner and I used to take our LS-6a on
safaris all over the southwest using a 1,000' rope and my 5L Ford pickup
or his Jeep Grand Cherokee (don't know the engine size). We routinely
got 700' AGL, though we did have a CG release.

--
Dan, 5J