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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
Attached Files
Usually if I know it's a "slow flier" I use flaps and fly slower or just fly slower at a steeper angle.
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