Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Car-Tow

I'm starting to feel better about this whole car-launching thing. Here is a picture of an Australian powered Goat on an engine-off flight. From what I can tell, it is essentially tying a rope to the car bumper and attaching that to the tow-bridle of Goat. I read that for a short field, it is proper to have a ground pulley that turns the car to face the glider. This way, the driver can better see the aircraft on launch too. Of course, the driver does not drive directly at the aircraft. Also, I find a slight issue that the glider needs to have a very good sense of where the turn-around is located so the glider doesn't get pulled down. In the desert areas, the pulley isn't used and the vehicle simply drives along a road as far as the glider pilot wants, getting better altitude than if a pulley was used. Still, it sounds pretty cool since I don't know anyone in the DC area yet with a tow plane; suggestions are welcome!

1 comment:

Bret Hess said...

In your reading, did you find some good links on ground tows? I found a yahoo group (hang/paragliders) on towing (see www.airchairbuild.wikidot.com for link, and put your link there too if it's good)

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