Finally, on rope length I agree with Mike Borgelt. The longer the rope
the easier an air tow is to fly in the glider. Last year I had a tow in
Poland in a Puchatz at their Zar mountain soaring centre on a VERY short
rope, and flying the tow was "very active". The field at Zar is a
respectable length so I do not know why they insist on using such short
ropes. The only reason for a short rope that I can think of is to tow
out of a VERY short field, and in my view even that is questionable, if
the field is THAT short it may not be safe to tow out of anyway.
Finally, Lasham make up air tow ropes to be 50m long (164 ft). From
memory, the BGA minimum tow rope length recommendation is 150 ft.


I, too, have been towed by a short rope (10M!) in Poland; but only out
of a dirt field. Mind you, getting towed out of a soft dirt field is,
by itself, a new experience (in the States we would say "go get your
trailer", but in Poland, do as the Poles do. The tow pilot, who spoke
very little English, said "Rope OK?". I figured the guy had to have
his reasons, hopefully not to make me look silly, so I said: "Rope
OK". A short rope on a runway would be intimidating enough, but we are
talking about a soft plowed field! With the help of a bunch of Polish
children (they showed up every time I landed out) I positioned the
glider (Jantar Std III) on the hardest furrow in the field. After some
instruction by the tow pilot to the oldest child on how to hold the
wing (one hand in the back pocket) we were ready to go.
The tow plane was a 9 cylinder radial tail dragger Yak (lots of
power!). The first thing that happened was that one of the amin gear
dug in, causing the tow plane to veer that direction. Of course, I
followed (so much for the hard furrow theory. Then the other wheel
would dug in and we would go that direction. This ment that I would
bounce over from furrow to furrow. At the same time, my gear would dug
in, increasing tow tension until the gear pulled out. This would pull
me violently unto my nose, which would cause me to bounce back onto
the tail, which would bounce me back onto the nose and back onto the
tail. At the same time one of the wing tips would drag into the dirt.
At least 10 times I told myself this was just too intolerable and I
should release; but each time I said (to myslef) I would hang on for
just one more second, and if it didn't improve then I would release.
Throughout this whole experience our speed was increasing, which was
both good and bad. Good: we needed speed to fly. Bad: the jolts got
more violent. Finally, I saw the tow plane go airborne. This was great
except for one thing: I was still on the ground! Hanging on, I felt my
main clear the dirt. But I could hear (yes, hear), the tail dragging
through the ground. Then the noise stopped: I was airborne!
Once airborne you might think that your troubles were over: wrong! At
that distance you can see ever rivet of the tow plane. You are totally
concentrating on following every little movement of the tow plane,
especially the wing waggle (tow release). Because after they waggle
their wings they do a split-S to go after the next glider! Sure
enough, he waggled his wings and I released. Now, where is the
airfield (it has to be close, doesn't it)? The airfield is a square km
of grass, which happens to look like every other farm in the area! I
started looking for another field to land in. Then I spotted the
airfield, to my great relief.
BTW, why the short rope? Simple: on take off I always had clear
visibility; if the long rope had been used the dust from the prop wash
would have made me IFR.