Tow plane types/mods for high density altitude glider towing

Uli,

It sounds like you're talking about Moriarty.Â* The Pawnee has 260 hp and
a CS prop, the Call Air has 290 hp and a fixed pitch prop, and the Ag
Wagon has 300 hp and a constant speed prop.

The Call Air, with its 94" prop is the noisiest of the bunch with its
supersonic tip speed, but most of the tow pilots don't reduce RPM on the
other two after getting safely airborne, resulting in about as much
noise.Â* I hate to think of all those 10-15 minute tows at full RPM.Â* I
wonder if the 5-minute limit is for RPM or for max power (which isn't
available at our altitudes).Â* When I was towing, I always reduced RPM
after we were both established in climb and I never got any complaints
from glider pilots.

On 8/12/2019 9:01 PM, AS wrote:
On Monday, August 12, 2019 at 9:38:43 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
What are your favorite aircraft types (and modifications) for glider towing in high density altitude and/or short runways?
I fly a heavy two-seater and have been towed in hot/high locations (DA around 10k') behind a Pawnee 235, CallAir A9, C188 AgWagon and a C185 SkyWagon. All four did a reasonable job with the C188 being the best. I think the Pawnee and definitely the two Cessnas had a constant speed prop and did actually better than the CallAir, which I was told had the most HP. I have no idea if any one of them had turbo-charged engines. A low wing, constant speed prop and lots of uumph seems to be the winning combination.

Uli
'AS'

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Dan, 5J