Tow rope musings - informal survey

My first launch in Lithuania last October was certainly no more than fifty feet behind the tow plane. I found it possible, but extremely difficult to stay in sync with the tow.
I was told the short line was standard there because it allows for retrieves from short fields.
In deference to my American ways, they added considerable length to the tow line for all subsequent launches.

On Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at 2:28:10 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron (Sr) wrote:
My first launch in Lithuania last October was certainly no more than fifty feet behind the tow plane. I found it possible, but extremely difficult to stay in sync with the tow.
I was told the short line was standard there because it allows for retrieves from short fields.
In deference to my American ways, they added considerable length to the tow line for all subsequent launches.

You'd think they'd reserve the ultra-short ropes for short-field retrieves ONLY?

Just watched an American (PBS) film on "German transport aircraft
of WW2"; it had some interesting footage of THREE Heinkel 111's
(just) launching a truly massive transport glider......
Interesting to speculate on who was in control of that launch!
Dave Walsh

On Tue, 26 Feb 2019 23:57:53 +0000, Dave Walsh wrote:

Just watched an American (PBS) film on "German transport aircraft of
WW2"; it had some interesting footage of THREE Heinkel 111's (just)
launching a truly massive transport glider...... Interesting to
speculate on who was in control of that launch! Dave Walsh

An Me-321 Gigant, but initial tests used a Ju-90 and then three Me-110s
to tow them. Improvements were needed and two were made:

1) Use an He-111Z (two He-111s stuck together side-by-side with a 5th
engine fitted on the centre line where the cut-down inner wings joined.
This never seems to have been much good.

2) Fit 6 1160 hp radial engines made in the captured Gnome et Rhone
factory and call the result an Me-323 Gigant. They flew well enough, but
were slow and poorly defended, making them easy meat for the RAF
operating from Malta when they were used to supply Rommel's Afrika-Corps


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

The "Troika Schlepp" incurred considerable tow pilot attrition.

On Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at 1:36:53 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, February 26, 2019 at 2:28:10 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron (Sr) wrote:
My first launch in Lithuania last October was certainly no more than fifty feet behind the tow plane. I found it possible, but extremely difficult to stay in sync with the tow.
I was told the short line was standard there because it allows for retrieves from short fields.
In deference to my American ways, they added considerable length to the tow line for all subsequent launches.

You'd think they'd reserve the ultra-short ropes for short-field retrieves ONLY?

If the difference between a 20m rope and 60m rope is going to make any significant difference to the takeoff then I'm going to be calling for the car and trailer in any case!

Have you seen Lithuanian cars and trailers?

On Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 7:05:39 AM UTC-8, Tony wrote:
Have you seen Lithuanian cars and trailers?

No, but I've seen the top of a windbreak hedge a lot closer than I liked, and that was at the end of a 1000m long field. I don't believe 30 or 40 metres of tow rope length would make any appreciable difference, compared to the variability of wind, slope, and soft surface.

To be fair, the tow pilot held it in ground effect for a long time, so when he did eventually climb over the windbreak it was with speed in hand.

On Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 7:05:39 AM UTC-8, Tony wrote:
Have you seen Lithuanian cars and trailers?

I can't speak for Lithuanian cars, but I did take a good look at the LAK glider trailers, and I was very impressed with the quality. I think they're probably the equivalent of a Cobra.

Since the MiniLAK I purchased comes with a trailer, I'll probably have a better opinion later this year when I've towed the beast back from Texas.

I make our tow ropes about 210' long, out of 3/8" hollow-braid poly (bought through W&W because for some reason the local businesses that sell rope around here consider it a waste of time to sell us four 1,000' spools of rope, prepaid). The ropes are used for one season maximum. We are on a nice, lush grass field and the ropes seldom need to have the ends cut and remade from abrasion. Any rope that looks suspect gets taken out of service. When we have an away trip to a paved field I take the rope that was used for towing there out of service when it returns because by then the combination of the wear it has received during flying at ho,e combined with the wear on the paved runway make it questionable enough that I would rather replace it. We have a set of weak links for the gliders we tow (club and private both Tost and Schweizer rings). The L-19 towplanes have Tost hooks.