Funny Story - Glider Tow

Received related topic from my R/C Glider friends

(and you thought we had aero tow issues!)

michael

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Funny Story - Glider Tow

I flew my Fly'n King with a banner last week. Boy, did it work great.

The tow point recommended by Bruce Tharp was perfect, right behind
the
trailing edge of the wing, centered on the fuselage. I made the
banner
according to the design on Allen Tong's website, worked the first
time.

We also towed a TT Windstar glider with less than desirable results.
It was very funny. I piloted the FK and my buddy flew the glider. All
went well until the first turn, then the glider started to buck like
a
mad horse. All kinds of slack got in the line and it just got more
pronounced the longer we flew. The glider is an old beater, so I did
not care if it did not survive. We had a length of surgical tubing in
the tow line, but it did not seem to help very much. My buddy cut it
loose and glided back to safety. I dropped the tow line over the
runway and landed without incident. On the second try another member
showed up who had flown full scale tow planes and gliders. He got
volunteered to pilot the glider. This flight was far worse than the
first flight. The glider eventually bucked so hard it broke the
rubber
bands holding it's wing on. The wing fluttered to the ground unharmed
while I towed the "lawn dart" fuse of the glider all over the friggin
field. We were laughing so hard because the glider pilot was still
able to "fly" the lawn dart from time to time, and the whole mess
looked so funny with the fuse dragging 80 feet below the tow plane. I
circled a few times trying to figure what to do next. Finally I
dropped the tow line and glider in the tall soft grass on the far
side
of the runway. It stuck in the soft soil about four inches, totally
unharmed.

Wish we had a film of that. I would entitle it, "When Good Planes Go
Bad". We are still laughing at ourselves on this one. We might make
several darts and create a competitive sport out of this.

Tom