The Dragonfly pilot was Russell Brown, IMHO one of the top 5 Dragonfly pilots and mechanics in the world so I had confidence there.

Other folks have used the Dragonfly as a tow ship, Gary Osaba in Zapata TX towed a Silent, Sparrowhawk and others. In Zapata we accomplished dual HG tows with the Dragonfly and I believe a few triple tows to 3,000 AGL.

I would not try this at higher elevations with high density altitudes.

With higher density altitudes, the turbo-914 is OK but as Ron has noted the tow speeds are limited with the Dragonfly. The normally aspirated Dragonfly's would be challenged at the higher density altitudes. I've had good, but careful tows from Russell Brown, Bobby Bailey, and Rhett Radford in Dragonfly's towing half a dozen types of lighter gliders. The turbo-914 has successfully towed my ASW-27B many times, but dry. It was borderline, and both pilots really need to know what they are doing.

The lowest powered tows I've experienced were behind a flex-wing Trike, forgotten make, flown by Neal Harris with a Rotax 377 and 35 hp at Hearne, TX. With this, we set two World Records in a Woodstock I- out and return distance and 100km speed triangle for DU class gliders. These were later eclipsed by more modern designs.

As another poster wrote, Garland Pack's early work in this area is notable. A cogent paper was written showing the effectiveness of completely stripping the tow plane to reduce all unnecessary weight- and matching props to the job. I have a copy somewhere but cannot locate it right now. As another poster wrote, the key figure of merit here is excess power. Penaud diagrams are effective in portratying the pertinent relationships and variables.

Please do not construe any of this as a general recommendation. More power = more safety, more options.

Gary Osoba