Tow rope musings - informal survey

On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 2:11:34 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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.

PM sent. Interested in your L-19 Tost hook installation.

best,
Evan

On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 8:05:21 AM UTC-5, Tango Eight wrote:
On Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 2:11:34 AM UTC-5, wrote:
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.

PM sent. Interested in your L-19 Tost hook installation.

best,
Evan

" is likely a throw away email address. Any idea who this is? I'm very keen to find someone with a decently engineered and 337'ed tost hook installation for L-19.

-Evan

On Monday, February 25, 2019 at 7:47:42 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:
What is the initial new length of the tow ropes that you use?

Assuming that you cut off the worn portion near the ring and gradually shorten the rope, when does the rope get too short to use? How often do you measure the rope?

Do you usually discard used ropes because of visible wear, reduced length, or a fixed number of tows?

What is the breaking strength of your tow rope when new?

Some gliders are heavier and some are lighter. Do you use weak links as recommended by the individual glider's POH?

Answering as an individual pilot you prefer a tow rope that is at the weak or strong end of the acceptable range?

Is it true that some people have used (and continue to use) 'unbreakable' tow ropes? How does that work out?

What ever happened to the idea of attaching a plastic funnel to the
glider end. When I was a CTP, this was introduced for two rreasons.
1. It holds the end maybe 10-15 ft higher over the trees/road.
2. it eliminates wear at the ring .

3. It will be nixed by the finance dept. owing to the high cost
of funnels.

I know when I'm beaten.
JMF