Pawnee Tow Release

On 8/4/2019 11:16 PM, 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.

"What (the other) Bob said."

The engineer in me can't help but wonder why the original designers of spray
planes put *their* 'emergency release' handles within easy release of their
ships' Joe Pilot. Every (ubiquitous in the USA) Air Tractor I've seen
similarly has this design. What a concept!

Bob - not a power pilot - W.

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