H9 33% Pawnee Tug Conversion

[BryanB]

What are the recommended wheel replacements? I'm purchasing a used Pawnee and it still has the stock wheels.

[Sinkhappens86]

After doing some uh, significant maintenance to the fuel tank on the Pawnee after Goshen, we took it out for a shakedown flight before Cumberland. On the second flight the landing gear looked... funny. Really glad I stopped flying to check it. The forward landing gear block was clearly failing. So off came the covering




And here's what we found





Luckily it appeared that the main block had just popped at the joints, so it was pretty straightforward to glue it back together, but we wanted to add some additional reinforcement.




All covered and ready for duty at Cumerland. Really, really glad we caught it before heading down there!

[stevekremer]

The urge to fly is greater than the urge to complete the cowl!

Steve K

[JimD]

Maybe it is the new tow plane chic thing...like an exposed engine hot rod.

https://goo.gl/images/3wCz4j

[JimD]

[Swiss1]

Yeah, just like that Frenchman who refuses to put the cowl on his Bidule

Jeremy and Ben
SCCAAA TT TN

[lenb]

Something to do with the front end?

[JimD]

Congratulations!!!

Couldn't help but notice a certain family resemblance.

[lenb]

Congrats Kevin

See you in the Green Mountain Region

[Sinkhappens86]

Success!!! Got the Pawnee finished up this weekend and took it out this morning. After some last minute programming and checks we fired up the DA and it was time to go. It flew beautifully needed almost zero trim. Super happy with it, can't wait to haul some gliders up in Vermont.

A huge thanks to Len and Jim for making this possible. You guys are incredible. Another big thanks to my Dad for letting me access his shop, tools, parts and his knowledge.

Still a little more to do on it, but its almost all cosmetic. Again, can't wait for Vermont!

[Sinkhappens86]

Does anyone have a photo of the Ohio Superstar 1/3 scale tailwheel installed?

[AGriffith]

Gotcha, all good points.

[JimD]

I have experimented with placing the tow point in a more aft position on a Hangar 9 Decathlon. With small to medium size (Blanik and ASW20) sailplanes, this was not a problem...maybe even better than a more forward placement like on the TopModel 3.2m Porter. BUT, as the sailplanes got larger (6.6m Arcus and Duo Discus) keeping the sailplane in just the right position behind the tow plane became increasingly necessary. This became extreme when we tried towing the 8.0m sailplanes. Tow plane and sailplane could get radically out of shape in the blink of an eye!

When I moved the tow release further forward on the Decathlon, things improved remarkably with the big sailplanes. Having had this experience, and watching many Pawnee tows, I think the Pawnee would do a much better job towing the big stuff with this more forward placement. As I said, the smaller to medium size sailplanes were no problem and hence I agree with Andy that the Pawnee has been a great tow plane...but sailplanes keep getting bigger and that is placing more of a challenge on the tow pilots and their planes.

[jgallacher]

I have a Legacy Turbo Duster (low wing) and I am using a bridle on it. The only problem I had was the ends of the bridle slapped the under side of the elevator when I would drop the line before landing. A couple of times I had the line catch on the elevator servo which is proud of the side of the fuse. The fix was to add a length of Ny-Rod outer sleeve over each half of the bridle. The Ny-Rod sleeve extends back over the elevator. Now when I release the line the ends of the bridle go straight up as the elevator drives under the bridle ends.
Jim

[lenb]

Hi Andy,
I'm usually the same way, if it works why reinvent the wheel, however on this one the tow position is really in the wrong location. Its something like 22" behind the CG. Numerous times at the Horizon event if a big sailplane got too high on the tug it will pull the tail up and the tug is pretty much out of control. I've seen it happen quite a few times, so this is an attempt to see what can be done and perhaps improve and already good tow plane.

Missed you at Horizon this year!!!

Len