Well those of you who were up at the field on Sunday would have seen my latest model that I plan to use for towing up gliders at our field.

The model is a Precident T240 which has a 40cc petrol lump up front which should do the job fine.

I will do carry out the fiting of a tow release on the T240 so the line can be released in case the mechanism on the glider fails.

The good weather will soon be upon us I hope, so get yourself sorted with a glider (preferably with ailerons) and lets have some fun.

Here is a picture of the Tug

Magic! Always fancied a bit of this.  I'll need to dig out my Sirius and throw away the motor!

Good Man 

Here is a link for a suitable tow release 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GLIDER-SAILPLANE-TOW-LINE-RELEASE-HOOK-THERMALS-SOURING-/190510366211?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item2c5b4d7e03#ht_828wt_905

cool save me on fuel pratice my dead stick landings very nice plane how many planes have you got 

Where do you tow from on a model?

Ian

The best place I have found so far is at the trailing edge of the wing.

On my Wot 4 i just looped the line around the wing bolt and it worked fine.

On full-size aircraft, the towhitch is normally screwed into the tailwheel hard point. This makes the initial stages of the takeoff very critical, as the glider must not be allowed to pull the tug's tail up.

Ian

If you were at the field on Sunday 10/04/11 you would probably seen I was some problems with the T240. After spending around a couple of hours checking out different things my radio problems were traced to being a loose plug cap. 

The last flight of the day seen the T240 go dead stick and not make it back into the field due to the strong headwind. It sat on the power cables breifly then fell off and suffered some slight damage to its wing, fuselage and broke the prop.

The damage was all repaired in around half an hour last night and its ready to go again.

I am planning to fit the tow release this week and weather permitting tow up a glider at the weekend.

I was asked yesterday what it the best glider is to use and to be honest I don't know.

All I can say at the moment is the larger the better and ailerons would be a deffinate help to keep life easier  for both the tug and glider pilot.

When under tow all the glider pilot has to do is keep the wings level and keep the glider slightly higher than the tug.

In the turns the glider will just follow the tug around so again just keep the glider wings level.

The glider that I have used on my Wot 4 is here, anything simmillar should do fine.

Oh and if I was a bit narky or short with anyone yesterday, sorry.

Here is the video that Ian filmed on my first attempt with my Discus and borrowed Wot 4

http://youtu.be/NaDhQEfXhZM

Well i wouldn't say you were narky, but I know which dwarf you would have been in snow white and it aint happy

Maybe slightly off topic, but one of the chaps in the Oxford Model Flying Club had a large foam and ply high winger powered by a Supertigre G75.

He had fairly negative experiences of aerotowing and built pylons onto the wing with a servo operated release. The glider could then be bound to the pylons with GPO rubber bands, and piggybacked as high as you wanted.

The system semed to work fairly well even with big thermal soarers (although it could be a bit unsteady on the ground).

Ian

Got a 2.6m glider, not opened the box yet but might take a while to fettle. Airbrakes, spoilers, flaps, full moving tail, tow hook release. Still, no throttle linkage to fret about and no choke! wowser!.

Now has anyone ever built an electric winch? Lipo, brushless, geared, same bound receiver, 1000m of? fishingline? and how to stop it? Tow release stops the winch and unhooks the glider?

Club facility?

Don't fancy a bunggee, Alex says they kill people, stake comes out, flies 200m towards the numpty stretching the hook.

Hi Rod,

What glider did you get?

How about an online build thread to encourage others?

I think Dave Watson or Robert Carson might have a winch you might be able to borrow.

Bungee is not a problem to use if you are careful. I have one and used it without any problems on a number of occasions, you are moree than welcome to borrow it if you want.

Only thing with either the winch or bungee is you can only really use them when the wind is from the west otherwise its one hell of a walk to the pilot stance not to mention if the wings come off / fail  you might have a dart being catapulted towards the pitt area.

This is the reason why I decided to try aerotow.

Cheers

Alastair

Tow release now installed and ready to go.:)

Well today was a good day and at the same time a not so good day.

Think I have the engine sorted out on the T240 so the cowl can go back on.:D

I tried my Bird of Tiime glider (no ailerons) and it worked 2 of of 3 times:(

Wind caught it and it rolled on its back and went in, on the plus side it is repairable and will fly again but not from aerotow. Very glad I hit the tow release or it could have been a lot worse if it had been dragged down the field.

So now that I have tried and failed I will not be towing up any gliders that are not fitted with ailerons.

The Discus performed well as per usual so lets get some more gliders in the air.

Its not much fun for a tug pilot with only one glider to haul up.

Got  my release mech through the post. All I need now is to find an hour to fit it.

 Great news, get it installed man you know it makes