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Old March 16th 09, 09:29 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
The Real Doctor
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Posts: 108
Default motorgliders as towplanes

On 16 Mar, 16:41, danlj wrote:

Ten - twelve years ago we had a little 4-man club that towed a fully-
loaded Blanik L-13 off a *paved* runway with a Piper Pacer.


I was once approaching my then club - Borders GC - to land when I saw
a Bocian lining up for takeoff behind the club's Pawnee 150. "Oh, this
should be interesting" I thought and I found a bit of lift to park in
and watch the fun.

The fun turned out to be the combination making three full circuits of
the airfield, never getting above a couple of hundred feet, then the
tug waving off and the two landing together (no on-tow landings in the
UK, unlike France).

Nice wee tug for a single seater, and whisper quiet with a four blade
prop and silencer, but it couldn't pull the skin off a two-seater rice
pudding. It later had the engine upped to 160hp (as far as the CAA
would go without an STC), a 2-blade prop and lost the silencer.

Ian