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  • Tow plane operation at an event

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    Activity breeds Activity

    It was April of 2009 when we attended our first official Aerotow in Lancaster PA. Since that event we've attended 73 aerotow events across the Eastern and Midwestern part of the United States and even attended a few events in Switzerland and Germany.
    They all have one thing in common..... If the tow plane is running, people will fly.
    It's really that simple. Activity breeds Activity.

    This past week we were in Georgia for the South East Regional Aerotow and I had the opportunity to sit back and make some interesting observations. When hosting an aerotow event, there are many balls that need to be juggled at once. Food is always a handful, parking, registration, facilities, pit area and of course, TOWING.
    Without the tow planes, its just an AERO.
    So what observations?
    If the tow plane shuts down, people stop flying. When it starts up, people come running for a tow. Very rarely does a pilot "ask" for a tow if the plane is not running. Instead they wait for the tug to fire up. When we shut down the Bidule, we would here comments like " There must be something wrong with the tug" and "I guess the tow plane's taking a break". Little did they know we were waiting for them.. lol A common misconception.

    The odd part is as a tug pilot also, we figure the sailplane pilots are taking a break and there's nobody to tow. So as an experiment, I kept my Bidule running the entire time I was on duty, and when nobody was in line I took off and flew up high getting some slow flight practice in at the same time. It would only be a couple minutes before someone would come up and be ready to be towed, then it was full bore for another 30 min with a line forming to fly.

    The other observation was how having one person organizing the towing can make all the difference for smooth operation of the towing duties.

    At our event in CT " The New England Aerotow" Steve P, the event CD, runs everything on the registration side of the fence and I ( event towmaster) run everything on the flying field side of the fence. We have done this from the beginning and its worked out pretty well. Without having to deal with registration or other CD responsibilities, I'm free to organize the tow pilots and make sure there's always a tug either in the air or ready to go.

    As event organizers, we ask people to travel from far away, spend a lot of money and then pay us to fly at our fields. They don't come here to sit around waiting for a tow.

    Towing should be taken seriously. There are more and more tow planes showing up at events and with those pilots wanting to tow, it can be chaos if not properly organized.

    I'm hoping our experience, idea's and thoughts may be helpful in preparing for your upcoming events.


    Assign a dedicated "TowMaster"

    This person is responsible for organizing the tow plane and tow pilots available at the event. Hold a tow pilots meeting right after the pilots meeting and talk about how you want it run.

    1) Have the tow plane FUELED and BATTERIES CHARGED at the beginning of the day.

    2) Line the tugs up along the fence or in a dedicated area, this way its easy to look over and see what tug is up next.

    3) Plan on having the tow pilot tow for 1 full tank of fuel, this is usually about 50min to an hour. Long enough to need a break.

    4) When the current tow pilot see's he is within 5 tows of being done, inform the TowMaster, who can get the next tug pilot ready and help him fire up the next tug.

    5) Once the current tow pilot is finished flying, he should refuel the tug right away and charge the batteries if needed right away so the plane is ready in the event there is a problem.

    6) Inform the next tow pilot he will be on deck and ready to fly within an hour or sooner if needed.

    7) Have a tow plane and pilot ready to go at a moments notice if the line gets long and you want to temporarily run a second tow plane. Its a challenging dance, but fun and effective if done right.

    8) ALWAYS have a line tender working with the tow pilot. This person handles the towline and give it to the sailplane pilot to hook up, but more importantly act's as air traffic control. The tender is a vital part of the operation and can make the tow pilots job much, much easier than doing it all himself.

    It's the Tow Masters job to assign someone to tend the lines, don't just wait for a volunteer, ask someone t spend an hour working the lines. It's kinda fun and you learn a lot about operations too.

    9) Set up two orange cones as a Que, make it clear that if you want a tow, you MUST be between the cones. If you have a plane between the cones and there is no pilot with it. Tow it anyway. ( just kidding)
    At the Horizon aerotow in IL, the rule is if for some strange reason there is no tug running, bring you're plane to the cones and one will start immediately. ( they're always running though)



    Lastly,
    If you have the room at you're field to run a small tow plane, it can often help take the pressure off the main tow plane operation. This was the case in Georgia, where some guys were towing with Carbon Z cubs and other small electric tugs. Everyone had a blast. Just a simple wave to the other tow pilots communicates you're intention.



    There's nothing more satisfying than to see sailplane pilots exhausted at the end of the day because you kept them in the air, not on the ground.


    Remember

    Activity breeds Activity

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    Attached Files
    Len Buffinton
    Team Horizon Hobby

  • #2
    Great article Len! I believe you have covered the essence of a great aerotow. We have a safety policy at our event that the tow pilot never handles the tow line. Hands stay on the transmitter. We also use Horizon’s policy that if there isn’t a glider at the cones, our tow pilots can stand down until one shows up. But that is rare. Having all tugs ready at the start of the day and knowing who’s “on deck” is important.

    We also employ a second tow plane if the queue line gets long. With good communication this can quickly get the wait down to manageable levels. The sailplane pilots appreciate this immensely!

    Last year we also ran a Carbon Z Cub and other electric tow planes. This was very well received and really encouraged participation by newcomers. The Carbon Z’s were able to handle 2-meters and a lot of 3-meter gliders.

    Keep ‘em flying!

    Larry

    Comment


    • #3
      Larry,
      EXCELLENT POINT about the tug pilot not handling the tow lines. That's a huge no no and glad you brought it up. I learned that the hard way in the beginning when I was trying to get the line, the throttle stick bumped and the tug rolled into the pits and hit Steves wing of his brand new Ventus. Cost me about $1100 to get a new wing sent from LET. Luckily it was only a wing not a person.

      Another thing we do is when the tug is on the ground, your thumb goes over the throttle stick as a lock and stays there until you're ready to move the tug. With the new brake system on the Bidules, it's pretty nice setting the parking brake.

      Thanks for the input.

      Len
      Len Buffinton
      Team Horizon Hobby

      Comment


      • #4
        On the subject of tow plane safety, Len taught me something else. While I had long been in the habit of using the spring loaded switch on the top left of my transmitter as engine kill (giving very low throttle to kill engine), Len suggested adding mixing settings that also give full choke and ignition kill to this same switch. In an emergency, this will kill the engine in the quickest way possible.
        A Site for Soar Eyes

        Comment


        • #5
          Gotta say that us peanut scale guys at SERA really appreciated the smaller tow planes. There were at least four, one of them my Z-cub that Dan flew, Andy's Z-cub, and Marc flew a couple of different tugs for us. I'm pretty sure those big Bidules would have ripped the wings off my foamy Parkzone Ka8 :-o

          My other choice last weekend was to go to a local TD event. Best case there would have been 8 rounds, so 80minutes flying for the day. I think I had flown more than 80' by 11:00 Saturday.

          I'll be back,
          Dave

          Comment


          • Xroadie
            Xroadie commented
            Editing a comment
            I had to throttle way back on the Carbon Cub when it started to flutter the wings on a 1/4 scale Minimoa.....which is not a tiny airplane Usually if I know it's a "slow flier" I use flaps and fly slower or just fly slower at a steeper angle.

        • #6
          Dave nailed it. The volume and quality of flying at a well-run aerotow is unsurpassed. I spent an entire day last weekend flying 6 rounds of competition -- 60 minutes stick time. Had a ball, but no comparison.
          Team PowerBox Systems Americas... If flying were the language of men, soaring would be its poetry.

          Comment


          • #7
            This is great info. I want to try and generate interest locally so will use the 'pearls' of wisdom proffered here!

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