Cessna 182P tow plane

Our club (in Australia) plans to use a Cessna 182P for towing, with a
Schweizer hook.
We are looking for some performance information. Does anyone have a Cessna
182P already towing and would you be able to help us out with performance
charts, maximum weight that can be towed, whether the area around the tie
down bolt (where the Schweizer hook is attached) needed to be
strengthened?
Performance figures for a Cessna tow plane of lower engine power would be
of interest too, because we could say it can tow at least that well.
Many thanks in anticipation of your help.
You are welcome to email me off directly if you wish.


PapaMike

On Oct 23, 5:26*pm, Pam Kurstjens wrote:
Our club (in Australia) plans to use a Cessna 182P for towing, with a
Schweizer hook.
We are looking for some performance information. Does anyone have a Cessna
182P already towing and would you be able to help us out with performance
charts, maximum weight that can be towed, whether the area around the tie
down bolt (where the Schweizer hook is attached) needed to be
strengthened?
Performance figures for a Cessna tow plane of lower engine power would be
of interest too, because we could say it can tow at least that well.
Many thanks in anticipation of your help.
You are welcome to email me off directly if you wish.


PapaMike

I think the Schweizer hook will be your limiting factor. Our
installation was limited to 1200 lbs.

On Oct 23, 5:36*pm, 150flivver wrote:
On Oct 23, 5:26*pm, Pam Kurstjens wrote:

Our club (in Australia) plans to use a Cessna 182P for towing, with a
Schweizer hook.
We are looking for some performance information. Does anyone have a Cessna
182P already towing and would you be able to help us out with performance
charts, maximum weight that can be towed, whether the area around the tie
down bolt (where the Schweizer hook is attached) needed to be
strengthened?
Performance figures for a Cessna tow plane of lower engine power would be
of interest too, because we could say it can tow at least that well.
Many thanks in anticipation of your help.
You are welcome to email me off directly if you wish.


PapaMike

I think the Schweizer hook will be your limiting factor. *Our
installation was limited to 1200 lbs.

Yes, and if the hook swivels on its single bolt, it can become
inoperable. A Tost hook is preferable is one is STC'd - the retract
winch would be even better.

Performance wise, 182's work well but the limiting factor is engine
temperatures at normal towing speeds.

Our club, Seattle Glider Council is using, besides Pawnee, Cessna
182A. I don't have any performance charts and such data, but I can
tell you that we are towing behind it any glider that shows up at the
flight line. Just last Wednesday I towed a Nimbus 4D to an altitude of
6250' without any problems. Ephrata, WA gets quite hot during the
summer time and we had some issues with high engine oil temperature;
that was remedied by installing an oil cooler from Continental O/IO
520. After the installation oil temp. stayed were they supposed to.
Also, we are putting only 30 gallons of fuel into the tanks. That
permits us to fly 10 tows to around 4000' (EPH elevation is 1276')
and keep the plane on the light side. The rear seats and front
passenger seat are removed. The tow hook installed is non-swiveling
Schweizer, but I think that someone in our club is thinking about
installing the TOST hook (heard through the grapevine, don't know if
this true or not). I don't know if anyone has any performance charts
for towing operations, but keep looking, maybe somebody does. We are
operating on a paved runway. 20 degr. flaps for take-off and the
airplane like to fly at around 75 kts. Preferable glider position is
right behind the plane; if a pilot positions his/her glider in "High
Tow Position" then the climb rate will be reduced or it will just
stop. Hope this will help a little bit.

Jacek
Pasco, WA

On Oct 23, 3:26*pm, Pam Kurstjens wrote:
Our club (in Australia) plans to use a Cessna 182P for towing, with a
Schweizer hook.
We are looking for some performance information. Does anyone have a Cessna
182P already towing and would you be able to help us out with performance
charts, maximum weight that can be towed, whether the area around the tie
down bolt (where the Schweizer hook is attached) needed to be
strengthened?
Performance figures for a Cessna tow plane of lower engine power would be
of interest too, because we could say it can tow at least that well.
Many thanks in anticipation of your help.
You are welcome to email me off directly if you wish.


PapaMike

Pam,

Tried and true.

No formal figures but 182C pulls K21's, Grobs and up to 21M ships for
30 yrs in Cal City and a dozen other FBO's. 182A is off the deck at
Jean, NV in less than 2000 ft of runway @ 2844 MSL, tugging an SGS2-32
full gross & 99 degrees F. Little better if you keep airspeed less
than VY.

Also no prob so far with any LS or ASW w/ H20 at similar temps. 2 gal
per tow and .2 tach to 3,000 AGL. Most SEL pilots in our country have
172 and 182 time.

Pawnees are better, but frankly overall overated in some ways. i.e.,
one seat tow pilot check-outs, fabric upkeep, more expensive to
insure, most hoppers smell like bug spray.

Try a "Cessna 182" subject search on this forum and others for decades
of pro's and cons.

Michael