Aerotow rope drogue chute?

we don't cut ours in half, we use the whole ball, drilling holes at the
"poles" to thread the safety link through, or higher up the rope above the
"safety to rope" connection.

The balls out here in the desert south west can last about 100 launches,
landings are the roughest on it, dragging it over the ground at 60knts or
less, we don't drop the rope on landing, but leave it attached to the tug
and either back taxi if the landing was long, or just pull up for the next
tow. What a difference a 5knt headwind makes on the landing distance
required.


BT
"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:3fd4e9c8$1@darkstar...
What is a wiffle ball made of and what size is it and
how long do they last on the end of tow ropes?

John Galloway


It's a little hollow plastic ball about the size of
an orange or softball which has a bunch of holes
through it to make it even less aerodynamic. Kids
buy them with a plastic bat and can hit the ball as hard
as they want and it only goes about 5 feet (that's
about 1.6 meters for you international chaps).

Buy a set for your kids, and when they get tired of
it, cut the balls in half and put them on the end of
the tow rope. The bat is useless for the tow
pilot, but I've seen instructors use them to help
improve student progress ;-P

They last I dunno, maybe hundreds of tows? I guess
it depends on cement vs. dirt runways...