Aero-Towing - Favorite Tugs

[Imac Kiwi]

A couple of pics of Baldricks Wilga Tug, DA 50 powered.

[Dumorian]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JLeyland
	Would anyone mind posting some pictures of their tow setup? (close ups of the attach point etc) I'd really appreciate it. I'm about to start building a 12' Telemaster and would like to make it a tow plane. I think it'll be a good one! thanks for any help Jon

I had a STM set up as a tug. Key word there being 'had'. Radio took it from me.

This is what I learned about the STM. The rudder needed to be enlarged by at least 50%. Way too small. If there was any cross wind at all, when the tail wheel lifted the plane made a sudden turn into the wind in spite of full rudder to battle it. I actually think twice as big would have been nice.

It's a floater and that's a gross understatement. As mine was a ARF, I cut the ailerons into about 2/5ths flap, 3/5ths aileron and this worked very well. It could be even better starting with a kit and making the flaps even closer to the fuse. My radio supports full span ailerons which I also ran. So, it really had little effect on the flying, but a grand effect on the landing. I never got around to trying crow on it, but I think that would even be better, at least a bit of up aileron to down flap. One could experiment.

The STM flew great! Very majestic. Mine was electric and weighed about 12 or 13 pounds. It had a bomb bay, lights, the tug release. It was all decked out. I had decided to mod the rudder just about the time the tree modded the whole plane. It was an awesome sound!

The 12 footer should be a fantastic tug. I suppose you could but a huge gasser up front. Just think it all through and perhaps add a bit of reinforcement here and there to handle the power. The design will take off in no distance.. mine in about 15 feet if I wanted to. Add a bit of flap and take off even earlier.

I'm covering a Dynaflight Super Decathlon at the moment. One of the leftovers from the STM is the tug release I made... and yes it looks really nice on this plane as well. I did a bomb bay on this one as well... just skipped the lights. Wings are completely done. Bottom and tail feathers of fuse are covered, less graphics... Sides and top to go.. then rudder and elevators and bomb doors and access panel. Gee, I'm just about to the point of having a ARF!!!! Actually, I'm a bit beyond that as I have pretty much everything either mounted or premounted. Still a good ways to go.

OH... BTW... do think about a big bomb bay. This can work as a banner drop. So, you can have your banner in the bay and hooked via a harness around the sides up to the tug release. So, take off, open the bomb doors... magically the banner appears... get ready to land... do a fly by, drop the banner, then come in all nice and clean. About the only drawback is the size of the banner is limited to what you can fit in the bomb bay. Either way... it's just one more thing you can do.

Now, I need to run over to the financial site and buy some stock in a covering company. What brand of covering did you say you were going to use?

[clivehodder]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Borries
	Esm/Kmp Cessna 185 with a 50cc DL BB

Have you fixed it after the crash at Garra' the other weekend?

[Borries]

	Quote: Originally Posted by clivehodder
	Have you fixed it after the crash at Garra' the other weekend?

You are just having a go at me aren't you ??? I would rather call it a minor bingle than a crash ! Straitened the undercart and re-glued the 1 elevator control surface, all done took 1 hour.

Cheers

BB

[pure micshef]

Hi guys this is my tow set up I have tried many diffrent ideas over the years from a simple hole in the fuse with a sliding pin to a bent over split pin, currently my favourite (it's easy!!) to drilling a hole up some alli cutting a filing out a slot...bugger that to simply gluing in a multiplex glider tow release flush with the fuse, a little hard to see but it sits between the trailing edge of the wing. They all work well but by far the easiest is the first two mentioned.

cheers Rossco

[JLeyland]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Dumorian
	I had a STM set up as a tug. Key word there being 'had'. Radio took it from me. This is what I learned about the STM. The rudder needed to be enlarged by at least 50%. Way too small. If there was any cross wind at all, when the tail wheel lifted the plane made a sudden turn into the wind in spite of full rudder to battle it. I actually think twice as big would have been nice. It's a floater and that's a gross understatement. As mine was a ARF, I cut the ailerons into about 2/5ths flap, 3/5ths aileron and this worked very well. It could be even better starting with a kit and making the flaps even closer to the fuse. My radio supports full span ailerons which I also ran. So, it really had little effect on the flying, but a grand effect on the landing. I never got around to trying crow on it, but I think that would even be better, at least a bit of up aileron to down flap. One could experiment. The STM flew great! Very majestic. Mine was electric and weighed about 12 or 13 pounds. It had a bomb bay, lights, the tug release. It was all decked out. I had decided to mod the rudder just about the time the tree modded the whole plane. It was an awesome sound! The 12 footer should be a fantastic tug. I suppose you could but a huge gasser up front. Just think it all through and perhaps add a bit of reinforcement here and there to handle the power. The design will take off in no distance.. mine in about 15 feet if I wanted to. Add a bit of flap and take off even earlier. I'm covering a Dynaflight Super Decathlon at the moment. One of the leftovers from the STM is the tug release I made... and yes it looks really nice on this plane as well. I did a bomb bay on this one as well... just skipped the lights. Wings are completely done. Bottom and tail feathers of fuse are covered, less graphics... Sides and top to go.. then rudder and elevators and bomb doors and access panel. Gee, I'm just about to the point of having a ARF!!!! Actually, I'm a bit beyond that as I have pretty much everything either mounted or premounted. Still a good ways to go. OH... BTW... do think about a big bomb bay. This can work as a banner drop. So, you can have your banner in the bay and hooked via a harness around the sides up to the tug release. So, take off, open the bomb doors... magically the banner appears... get ready to land... do a fly by, drop the banner, then come in all nice and clean. About the only drawback is the size of the banner is limited to what you can fit in the bomb bay. Either way... it's just one more thing you can do. Now, I need to run over to the financial site and buy some stock in a covering company. What brand of covering did you say you were going to use?

Sounds good Dumorian! I appreciate your input. I haven't decided how many 'tricks' I'm going to add but the glider tow set up is a must. I do want to keep it light so it'll fly as slow as possible. - I'm going to use Ultracote btw!

[JLeyland]

	Quote: Originally Posted by pure micshef
	Hi guys this is my tow set up I have tried many diffrent ideas over the years from a simple hole in the fuse with a sliding pin to a bent over split pin, currently my favourite (it's easy!!) to drilling a hole up some alli cutting a filing out a slot...bugger that to simply gluing in a multiplex glider tow release flush with the fuse, a little hard to see but it sits between the trailing edge of the wing. They all work well but by far the easiest is the first two mentioned. cheers Rossco

Great pics Rossco - thanks

[Dumorian]

	Quote: Originally Posted by JLeyland
	Sounds good Dumorian! I appreciate your input. I haven't decided how many 'tricks' I'm going to add but the glider tow set up is a must. I do want to keep it light so it'll fly as slow as possible. - I'm going to use Ultracote btw!

The Telemaster has soooo much lift.... light is always better... but I found mine kept acting better as the weight increased. Even then, without flaps, it would still come in and glide along a few feet above the runway forever! I think the other thing about the Telemasters is they just don't have much drag with the narrow front profile of the fuse. Heck, this model even had me thinking about a parachute and something like fish gills.

One person said no when I mentioned crow, but if I still had that model, I bet I would have tried it by now. In flight.... it was great... getting it off the ground and back on the ground again wasn't so great except on the perfect days. Either the ones with no wind or a gentle breeze aligned with the runway. The rudder mod would have dealt with most of that fear and the flaps sure did make a world of difference for slowing it down.

I never really noticed it flying differently based on what was onboard. I had a 2 pound video camera strapped to the top of the wing once. Even then it didn't seem to be effected much except for a bit of pitch trim. Also, with flaps, you can fly slow by adding just a bit of flap. This is a good way to take off at slower speeds when tugging those gliders that lift off quickly.

[icnbt]

HI pure micshef. Nice tugs We live next to Canada in Michigan. I want to tow for both sides. I well be building a 1/3 Super Cub w/152cc twin. Its scale w/ flaps,I'm thinking of adding spoilers,what would be your feelings on that??

[RustyTumbles]

Did the maiden on my mates new tug today. It's a 2.5m diablo (not scale) powered by a 3w 75cc CS TS. AUW 9.3KG. It's a very ugly aircract but it does fly very smooth and has plenty of punch with the 3W up front. Will be towing with it tomorrow so I'll snap a few pics of the tow release setup.

[RustyTumbles]

Here's a pic of me with the beast.......

[pitviper51]

that aint no tug thats a rocket ship!

[RustyTumbles]

Had a pretty good day at the field today. The diablo tows really well, pulled up a 5.5m asw22 and a 5m habicht with realative ease. Had some trouble with the habicht as it was nose heavy and didn't what to sit above the tug. So we shallowed to climb angle to get the glider in position. Only got 3 tows in before the flex header broke off should have it fixed up again soon and back in action.

Should have some more pics soon.

[RustyTumbles]

Here's a few pics of the tug release setup. We use a yoke type setup with attachment points on either side of the fuse. The two lines then join into one behind the tail surfaces. Attachment point are as close as possible to the tugs CG point.

Sorry about the quality, they were taken with my mobile phone.

[Dumorian]

	Quote: Originally Posted by icnbt
	HI pure micshef. Nice tugs We live next to Canada in Michigan. I want to tow for both sides. I well be building a 1/3 Super Cub w/152cc twin. Its scale w/ flaps,I'm thinking of adding spoilers,what would be your feelings on that??

I don't have any experience with a 1/3rd Scale Cub, but the 1/4 scale bleeds off airspeed so quickly its pretty much silly to watch. I can't personally think of a good reason for spoilers, but someone else might have a different opinion.

We've also played with flaperons on this 1/4 scale cub which does not have flaps. It really is amazing how slow it will fly with those deployed. Oddly, it seems to do really great at slow flying in spoileron mode as well. I guess this would equate to some tip washout leaving the inner portions of the wings to act a bit more like flaps. Nose it up a bit and fly real slow without stalling.

Again, though, the 1/4 scale will drop like a rock, flare for a landing and touch down in very little space. Cubs within their given limits, just might be the most perfect design.

No, I don't own one either...