poor lateral control on a slow tow?

On Jan 1, 8:07*am, John Cochrane
wrote:
The D2 also has a very low angle of incidence and thus a high nose
attitude on tow. Could this be part of the issue -- it's just darn
uncomfortable to fly with the nose pointed above the towplane? That
would also account for why 15 meter seems easier. We fly with flaps;
they are interconnected to the ailerons so we're not getting great
roll rates on tow. But it does give a nose down attitude so we can see
the towplane.

I had some really horrible feeling tows in a PW5. The thing felt
mushy, nose high, couldn't see the towplane, needed a lot of back
stick, afraid it was going to stall etc.

Then I realized that when you're going up at over 1000 fpm in still
air, keeping ANY part of the tug on the horizon (even wheels) is far
too high a position. I dropped down until I could start to feel the
wash and then came up a little. It felt much better but the tug seemed
WAY UP THERE.

Work it out ... at 65 knots and going up at 10 knots, the other end of
a 50m rope will be 7.7m above you if you're following the same path.
Even guessing 3m to get out of the wake, the tug should still be
nearly 5m above you.

And maybe it's 11 or 12 knots climb (I can't tell because the vario is
pegged), in which case that's another 1 or 1.5 m.

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. Even in the DG1000 two-up and
climbing at 700 fpm this still results in the tug's wheels being a
fraction above the horizon (and I've been criticized for this on
biannuals) but I'm still comfortably above the turbulence of the tug's
wake.