In article ,
(chris) wrote:

(Liam Finley) wrote in message
. com...
Disadvantages
1. uses 75' more runway length - less room to land ahead or land back
incase of a rope break.
Actually the length of the rope does not effect the amount or runway
available to the glider. Think about it.

OK, I thought about it. [ouch that thinkin' kinda hurt]

And yes there is still the full length of the runway available to the
_glider_. But that is only half the story. The glider+towplane
combination does not gain altitude until the towplane takes off. In
the case of our "cezzna" 175 the towplane does not take off until
signficantly after the glider.

[I like to at least pretend that I care about the safety of the
towpilot also. The shorter the rope the more engine out options he
has.]

As an extreem example to illustrate the point: If you used a 1000'
tow rope on a 2000' runway the towplane would not have climbed very
much by the end of the runway.

Chris


50 to 100 feet of extra runway is probably not significant unless the
runway is really short. Having towed on ropes from 60 feet to 300 feet,
I'll vote for the longer rope everytime.

By the way Chris, Tim brought the Pawnee in on Sunday afternoon.