On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 10:35:12 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 7:36:39 AM UTC-5, Bob Youngblood wrote:
On Tuesday, February 25, 2020 at 10:32:06 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 3:11:15 PM UTC-4, Bob Youngblood wrote:
On Wednesday, August 14, 2019 at 8:43:07 AM UTC-4, Walt Connelly wrote:
Bob Youngblood;997736 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. -
Kirk, that is in fact a very nice system. Take yours off the Pawnee and
send it to me. Times are tough and I am running low on cash, thinking
about calling JJ Wentworth for a small advance. Bob


Bob, the system on your Yellow Gorilla should be the standard throughout
the towing world. Everyone agrees the handle down, parallel to the
floor is difficult to access in an emergency and unsafe. The Schweizer
tow hook standardly installed is equally unsafe. While there is no way
to make towing completely safe for the tow pilot, at too low an altitude
a kiting glider is a death sentence and there is no justifiable reason
for any facility to continue with a release system proven to fail when
it needs to work the most. Just my humble opinion.

Walt Connelly
Former Tow Pilot
Now happily flying helicopters.




--
Walt Connelly

Walt, thanks for the kind words. I first made that arrangement on Dusty, my first Pawnee, and then on to the Yellow Gorilla. After many tows and other tow pilots examining the system they all have been in agreement with your observation. I am now completing a new Pawnee which is named Towpecker, it too will have the same release mechanism that even has better performance. Bob

Bob

Would it be possible to get some pictures of your release set up? Our Pawnee the floor mounted lever which is not acceptable and we are looking at alternatives.

Bruce Cynamon
Weirsdale Glider Club

Bruce, I would be glad to send you some pics of the tow release handle that I have developed on both of my Pawnee's. I never liked the release handle on the floor, it is difficult to get to regardless of an emergency or not. The Pawnee came with a hopper release handle located on the left side of the cockpit rising from beneath the floor and extends about three feet up in a forward position. If the pilot needed to dump the hopper the handle was there and made for easy access.
I used this same assembly as my tow release handle. The assembly itself sits in a two bushing support, super strong and easy to configure fora tow release handle. I did a bit of tig welding on the attach point to attach the release cable at the proper angle and guided the cable back to the Tost release assembly. This assembly works beautifully and ensures greater safety and easy access. Walt visited our club and looked at how I had done the tow release, his opinion of the release has been been backed by many tow pilots that have flown the Yellow Gorilla and other Pawnee tow pilots.
Safety comes first for the tow pilot, my next tow will not be my first, and damn sure don't want it o be the last. Bob

Bob

Would appreciate any information you can provide. Are you in Vero Beach by chance? That is not terribly far from here, one or more of us could come over for a look see.

Bruce

Yes, I live in Vero, here all the time