On Sunday, August 11, 2019 at 1:41:35 PM UTC-4, Hal wrote:
On Monday, August 5, 2019 at 1:16:45 AM UTC-4, Bob Youngblood wrote:
I am currently rebuilding another Pawnee and converting from a spray plane to a tow plane. Extensive work has been completed on this bird, and I am about ready to install the tow hook. This is the third Pawnee that I have converted and I have used the hopper dump handle as the tow release handle which provides a huge amount of leverage and also a easy to get to location. I most cases the tow handle release is located on the floor, which causes the pilot to reach down to get to the handle. In this case the hopper release handle is just to the left side of the pilot and requires no bending down and allows the pilot to keep their eye on flying the plane. It requires just a bit of modification to make this conversion and in my case the inspector was impressed with the application.
If any of you are considering converting a Pawnee you should consider this modification.

Back in the 1970's, I towed with a Citabria that had the release cable connected directly to steel tubing directly over the front windscreen. It ran toward the rear and through a guide high in the back of the cabin. To release you just reached up, grabbed the wire and pulled straight down. That was my favorite release of all time. Since then I must have flown at least six other towplanes with all sorts of release mechanisms. The least favorite is the floor release which I think is unsafe for the reasons you mentioned. In addition, if the pilot does not look down it can be confused with the flap control on many airplanes.

Yes, I agree 100%, back at Thermal Research our towplane had the release mounted just toward the upper left of the cockpit, a great place to easily access during any situation. The floor release is the least favorable of all. As you mentioned it certainly is close to the flap handle on many planes. The hopper handle in my opinion is the best release handle for the Pawnee.