At 15:11 25 February 2014, eric wrote:
On Sun, 23 Feb 2014 07:37:34 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Em ter�a-feira, 9 de julho de 2002 21h23min16s UTC+1, Bruce escreveu:
Does anyone have any experience using a Wilga as a towplane?

Yes, most if not all airclubs in Eastern Europe use Wilga as a towplane.
The aircraft was specially built for this purpose. The rear window and
the
flying atitude of the aircraft allows excellent visibility for the glider
behind.

It was built to be a STOL (short take off and landing) aircraft, and the
wings are having slats for this purpose. It is able to tow your glider
from
a 200 yeards field. With good headwind, the aicraft can take off within
100
feet run only!
It is not very well suited for air tours, because it has a glide ratio
of
only 1/4. Its main strengths are climb and landing as fast as possible,
in
other words, putting as much gliders as possible in the air.

When the engine is cut off, you can put the aircraft nose dive and bring
it to the ground within 2-3 minutes from an altitude of 2000 feet,
without
being being worried about exceeding the maximum speed. Shorter time =
less
fuel spent.

When towing, its fuel consumption is of approx. of 60 liter per hour.
Probably the best towing aircraft in the world.

I think the Wilga is a poor towplane for a modern glider fleet. Has
high drag and so likes to tow slower than most modern gliders like to
be towed. The fuel consumption increases and the climb rate decreases
rapidly with speed. The high lift devices cause alot of downwash
which causes poor aileron control for the following gliders unless
they are towed faster than usual.

Their only good point is that they are cheap to buy.


The Wilga short take-off ability is pretty good, climb rate no better than
a Pawnee. I did a test once, got one back on the ground in 30 seconds from
2,000 feet on base leg.

Problem is, if you drop the glider two or three miles up-wind of the field,
where they usually want to be, you burn an extra gallon of fuel getting
back.