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Lowest power tow



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 19th 20, 06:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Lowest power tow

What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.
  #2  
Old January 19th 20, 07:11 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Lowest power tow

Garland Pack’s J-3’s. 85 hp?

180 hp beater Super Cub in Aspen CO on a hot day towing a loaded 2-32 or Janus with the spoilers out?
  #3  
Old January 19th 20, 07:21 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Charles Longley
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Default Lowest power tow

I saw someone go behind a 65 hp J-3 once. They said they would never do it again!
  #4  
Old January 19th 20, 03:02 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Scott Williams[_2_]
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Default Lowest power tow

On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 11:30:51 PM UTC-6, wrote:
What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.


I wonder how much Aerotowing in the U.S. was influenced by post war economies, the U.S. had almost all the money, airplanes and resources following WWII. additionally, you could probably aerotow any early (read light, low wing loaded and slow) glider with a J3.
History is so funny, unless it's happening to you.
Scott
  #5  
Old January 19th 20, 03:20 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Ron Gleason
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Default Lowest power tow

On Saturday, 18 January 2020 22:30:51 UTC-7, wrote:
What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.


Dragonfly Ultralight used to tow hang gliders, equipped with Rotax 914S. Towed my DG303 at Big SPring TX during the 2008 HG worlds so we could assist the organizers with spotting 'cloud flyers' amongst the competitors.

Many gliders have been towed out of Sheets airport, north of Seminole, when they landed short getting back to Seminole.
  #6  
Old January 19th 20, 05:02 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
AS
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Default Lowest power tow

I wonder how much Aerotowing in the U.S. was influenced by post war economies, the U.S. had almost all the money, airplanes and resources following WWII. additionally, you could probably aerotow any early (read light, low wing loaded and slow) glider with a J3.
History is so funny, unless it's happening to you.
Scott


Pretty much right on the money, Scott. The opposite situation existed in post-war Europe, which resulted in winch-launching becoming the main way to get gliders airborne over there.

Uli
'AS'
  #7  
Old January 19th 20, 05:06 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
AS
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Default Lowest power tow

On Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 12:30:51 AM UTC-5, wrote:
What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.


My club used to own a British-made Taylorcraft 'Auster'. It had an inverted inline four (or six? - can't remember) engine which seemed very underpowered. We soon switched to a 150HP Super-Cub, which made a huge difference.

Uli
'AS'
  #8  
Old January 19th 20, 06:56 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Martin Gregorie[_6_]
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Default Lowest power tow

On Sun, 19 Jan 2020 08:06:08 -0800, AS wrote:

On Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 12:30:51 AM UTC-5,
wrote:
What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An
Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw
paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.


My club used to own a British-made Taylorcraft 'Auster'. It had an
inverted inline four (or six? - can't remember) engine which seemed very
underpowered. We soon switched to a 150HP Super-Cub, which made a huge
difference.

That engine would have been the De Havilland Gypsy Major, 130hp, four
cylinder inverted. It was fitted to a lot of 30s and 40s DH designs as
well as the Auster III, the most common Auster variant.

A lot of towing in the mid-50s in NZ, and probably in Britain as well,
was done with DH82 Tiger Moths, which all used the 130hp Gypsy Major
engine. As ex-wartime primary trainers they were plentiful and very
cheap. IIRC around 1950 you could pick them up for £25 in Britain. They
were also very common in Australia and NZ, where a lot were crashed in
early attempts at spreading superphosphate by air on hill pastures[*].

In 1958, in NZ, I remember getting a ride in a Schleicher
Ka-4 Rhonlerche. That was an aero-towed launch behind a Tiger Moth.
[*] Several years later, when Tiger Moths had been replaced by the
Fletcher FU-24 as the topdressing aircraft of choice, I remember seeing a
Cessna 180 with a bomb rack under each wing - this was an ill-advised
attempt to deliver fencing material on hill farms, the 'bomb' being a
bundle of angle-iron fence posts, etc. The problem was that the bundles
either arrived end-on and went in so far that it wasn't worth digging
them out or they landed sideways and rolled down to the bottom of the
hill, from where the farmer had to use a tractor/jeep/pack-horse to cart
them up the hill to where they were wanted. It was simpler and cheaper to
cart the fencing material up the hill along the same track the fencers
used, so that delivery method as soon abandoned.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

  #9  
Old January 19th 20, 08:05 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Burt Compton - Marfa Gliders, west Texas
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Posts: 182
Default Lowest power tow

In the 1960's-70's my Dad, Fritz Compton, would tow me in our Cirrus(Open Class) out of our 1,900' grass runway gliderport south of Miami, FLA using a 65 HP Piper J3 Cub with a climb prop. Later we upgraded to a 100 HP 1959 Cessna 150 with a climb prop. If the grass is tightly mowed, the glider pilot is very smooth on the controls (to minimize drag) and a discussion of a mandatory abort point is accomplished, it worked for us but You must evaluate and make your own decision!

My other "slow tow" experiences include aerotows in Germany behind motorgliders and the European category of ultralight airplanes.

The legendary Dick Johnson told me at a Marfa Wave Camp that he preferred a lower powered towplane because a slow climb on tow allowed him to evaluate and mark the thermals before release.

Those "old school" aviators had some interesting ideas and observations. Ask me sometime about my Dad's observation of the engine sound of an airplane flying overhead on a cold day - how the sound can indicate if thermals are present and if we should launch. Dad also observed that hawks and eagles often flew in the core of a thermal but buzzards and vultures preferred a slower climb on the edge of a thermal. True or not, soaring is primarily about the observations you make by looking outside.

Looking forward to further discussions at the SSA Convention in Little Rock, FEB 19-22, 2020.
Find me at the Soaring Safety Foundation booth near the entrance to the convention hall.
  #10  
Old January 19th 20, 08:09 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Frank Whiteley
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Posts: 2,099
Default Lowest power tow

On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 10:30:51 PM UTC-7, wrote:
What's the lowest power tow plane you've ever seen or towed by? An Examiner of mine said his was a C150 with 100hp. I also once saw paperwork for an 85hp Luscombe to tow.


Essex & Suffolk GC had an Auster A5J and a Rollason Condor D.62C (130hp). After a mishap with the Auster, the club acquired another Condor D.62A (100hp). The A version only towed single seaters. I could see the stall warning light going on and off in the Condor panels at times from the glider end..
 




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