motorgliders as towplanes

Hi Craig.

I landed out at Sackville Farm in the 15s last year and was ear bashed for
about an hour by Tim on how good the Grob109T was for towing. Unfortunately
he was not able to give me a tow out as the undercarriage had been damaged
and it was in repair.

I think you need a very good surface to operate off and that the Grob (and
probably similar SLMGs) are too lightly built for anything more than
occasional tugging.

At BGC our tugs do c. 2000 cycles p.a. each. I doubt that a MG would stay
that pace.

Jim


At 18:00 08 March 2009, Craig Lowrie wrote:

On 9 Mar 2009 08:30:04 GMT, Jim White wrote:


I think you need a very good surface to operate off and that the Grob (and
probably similar SLMGs) are too lightly built for anything more than
occasional tugging.

Their strength is completely sufficient for towing all dyearlong -
lots of clubs in Germany are using motorgliders as their primary tug
plane. The only problem is that they usually need a long grass or a
paved runway to be safe.



At BGC our tugs do c. 2000 cycles p.a. each. I doubt that a MG would stay
that pace.

No problem at all for a motorglider.

In message , Jim White
writes
Hi Craig.

I landed out at Sackville Farm in the 15s last year and was ear bashed for
about an hour by Tim on how good the Grob109T was for towing. Unfortunately
he was not able to give me a tow out as the undercarriage had been damaged
and it was in repair.

I think you need a very good surface to operate off and that the Grob (and
probably similar SLMGs) are too lightly built for anything more than
occasional tugging.


I also landed there last year and got a ride with Tim in his Grob. He
also did a tow for another arrival from Shennington who wasn't feeling
too euphoric to fly back.

Apparently the same one visited my own club the previous year to
demonstrate how good it was a towing, and they gave it our heaviest
two-seater with one of our heaviest crew combos, and it got them off the
ground. I believe our aerotow strip is just shy of 800m, and it rises
slightly at the end they took off towards. So far as I know the Grob
performed admirably.

At BGC our tugs do c. 2000 cycles p.a. each. I doubt that a MG would stay
that pace.

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