On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:50:15 +0200, "John Sp"
wrote:

Our gliding club towplane (Piper Super Cub) has developed play in the
Fuselage / Main strut connection - Portside.

I was going to guess portside then I reread your message. I used to
tow with a PA-12. I'm guessing that upon release, your pilot is doing
a slipping spiral on the wingtip like I did. Lots of vibration and
shuddering. Possibly the cause of the wear. I know that doing that
makes controling the airspeed a matter of feel rather than
instrumentation. Perhaps a little overspeed is mixed in?

I was taught to do that to prevent cold shocking the engine and to get
back on the ground ASAP. As we only had one sailplane, I wasn't in a
hurry to get down, but it was fun to do and the people on the ground
loved to see me do it.