On Tuesday, March 16, 2021 at 1:40:07 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Does anyone have experience with towing a Grob 103 or similar large 2-seat glider with a tow plane in the 160 HP class. Any specific experience details, lessons learned, or recommendations are appreciated. Did you do any testing prior to conducting training? If so, what was executed and logic for a testing progression, for instance. Does anyone propose environmental limits or runway length recommendations?

Asking because our 235 HP Pawnee is going to be offline for a while and we're investigating a lesser-powered Pawnee as a stand-in.

We tried it once about twenty ears ago with our 150 hp Cessna 150, on a 2500 ft long grass strip at 1900' asl at about 70 degF with a light breeze. The tug had gained about 1 foot of altitude at the end of the runway. To shorten the agony on tow, the glider released below 2,000 ft agl. Our chief tow pilot took a long rest after that tow. We never tried it again.
We still have the Cessna 150/150 and perform 2,000 ft tows with our L23 in about 10 to 12 minutes, start to stop. Our club has ruled out the purchase of a Grob 103, because of the memory of that one tow.
Roy