Recognizing and reacting to tow plane engine failure

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:41:57 AM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:
It would be useful to hear your stories of how incidents of tow plane engine failure turned out for you. It seems that there is very little time to recognize, react, and recover. What are classic mistakes to make in this scenario?

Would it be useful to practice 'release and land to the side of the tow plane path' (and have the tow plane fly a normal departure of course)? Any other recommended training exercises?

Your training should have covered these eventualities before your checkride..

As a glider pilot, I've had a towplane run out of fuel (at top of tow - we both released at the same time, rope never recovered), towplanes abort takeoff due to canopy door slamming open on ground (Pawnee), and at least one PTT (not towplane related). All were interesting but well within what was covered by my training.

From the towplane perspective, I've briefed and given sumulated emergencies to student glider pilots - such as briefing the glider pilot to slowly extend his divebrakes (at a safe altitude), note the difference in climb, then watch for my rudder waggle signal to close them. I've also done practice engine failure on tow (again, prebriefed) by slowly retarding the throttle at the top of the tow, and giving the waveoff wing rock to the glider, so the glider experiences the sensation of the tow losing power, and sees the "release now" signal.

If you are properly trained, have a plan, and pay attention, there is always plenty of time to take the correct action. If you are not sure you are ready, I suggest some practice scenarios with a cooperative tow pilot and instructor.

Kirk
66

On 2014-10-23 16:08:39 +0000, kirk.stant said:

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:41:57 AM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:
It would be useful to hear your stories of how incidents of tow plane
engine failure turned out for you. It seems that there is very little
time to recognize, react, and recover. What are classic mistakes to
make in this scenario?

Would it be useful to practice 'release and land to the side of the tow
plane path' (and have the tow plane fly a normal departure of course)?
Any other recommended training exercises?

Your training should have covered these eventualities before your checkride.

As a glider pilot, I've had a towplane run out of fuel (at top of tow -
we both released at the same time, rope never recovered), towplanes
abort takeoff due to canopy door slamming open on ground (Pawnee), and
at least one PTT (not towplane related). All were interesting but well
within what was covered by my training.
From the towplane perspective, I've briefed and given sumulated
emergencies to student glider pilots - such as briefing the glider
pilot to slowly extend his divebrakes (at a safe altitude), note the
difference in climb, then watch for my rudder waggle signal to close
them. I've also done practice engine failure on tow (again,
prebriefed) by slowly retarding the throttle at the top of the tow, and
giving the waveoff wing rock to the glider, so the glider experiences
the sensation of the tow losing power, and sees the "release now"
signal.

If you are properly trained, have a plan, and pay attention, there is
always plenty of time to take the correct action. If you are not sure
you are ready, I suggest some practice scenarios with a cooperative tow
pilot and instructor.

My funnest one: it's often quite humid here, and the canopy will fog up
as soon as you close it, and unfog once you start moving on the takeoff
roll. Until one day it didn't. When I got to liftoff speed and still
couldn't see anything past the tail of the tug I released and rolled to
a stop. Got out and found the front seat control for the vent in the
nose was closed. Opened it, pushed back to the takeoff point (with the
trial flighter still buckled in), and tried again. This time the canopy
cleared as expected.

So that's another item I now check every time I buckle a trial-flight
person in, along with turning on the master switch, turning down the
vario, and checking the transponder setting.

My first glider instruction flights were in 1967 (off a winch) but most of my flying since then has been aero-tow.

In many hundreds of aero-tows (I haven't checked my logbook for the actual number), I have had two complete tug failures and one partial loss of power.. The first was obvious as the tug prop stopped rotating instantaneously from a dropped valve just as I became airborne. I was unable to stop before the tug (heavy 19 m ballasted glider)and landed safely alongside it. The second was virtually the same, although power loss was more gradual. the third was a non-event - I just released.

I have never experienced a rope break while airborne, but have had a couple of hairy landings when give a simulated rope break at or below 200-feet.

I still wonder why we put so many folks at risk with this exercise?

Mike

Simulated rope breaks at 200ft is a lot like practicing bleeding...

Boggs