Skyline 04-05?

[jimrooney]

I know someone's got it cuz they had a link...
The back issues online end in 02, though I have found one of the other 05 issues online elsewhere.

I wrote a towing article once for Skyline back in 04 or 05. I'm looking to dig it up. I did the cover shot for that one as well.

Anyone got some old files hanging around?
Jim

[hang_pilot]

Hi, Jim-

Here's the text you sent me; thanks, again. I'm posting it here instead of e-mailing it to you, so folks who haven't seen it can give it a read. Scott W might have edited the version that appeared in the actual newsletter. The picture was cool, with a glider in the rear-view mirror. Sorry, to say I can't find it in my files.

Be safe in NZ, friend.

~D
------------------------
Taming the Beast.

I guess the first thing you learn about towing is that the Dragonfly ain't no hang glider. It's a fivehundred pound firebreathing deamon, and it's pissed off. My favorite description is that it's like flying a jet around at 20mph. The thing is an absolute monster. Its power to weight ratio can only be accurately described as obnoxious. Flying solo under full turbo, you climb with your heels well above the horizon. I've come to call the throttle the "Ground be gone leaver". It's so overpowered that if you go into turbo in a nose down attitude, you can quite litterally rip the wings off. And that's just the begining. It doesn't fly like any other airplane. The pitch sensitivity is off the charts, the ailerons are near worthless and the rudder makes it... roll? All in all, it's basically a freak... one that tug pilots learn to love.

That's all just in smooth air. Once you're comfortable with that, then it's time to take your wart-faced death machine somewhere other ultalight pilots don't even think about... that rodeo ride we call mid day. Other ultralight pilots are content to buzz around in the glassy smooth morning and evening air. That's what they look for. Heck, why not? It's fun. The whole point of flying a tug is to tow hang gliders. And what hang glider pilot is looking for a glassy smooth sled ride? Nope, we want rock and roll, boomin to the moon, cummies everywhere, soarble as hell, midday conditions. Eyes wide open, we dive headfirst into the belly of the beast.

"Looks great... you go first"
It takes a special kind of idiot to fly the tug. You see, one of the upsides of being a tug pilot is you get to fly all the time. Now the other side of that coin is you have to fly all the time. You have to be very comfortable with that idea. You're it. You're the "GoTo" guy. The show doesn't go unless you go first. You're up at (or in some cases before) the crack of dawn preflighting the plane. You fly all day long until the sun drops below the horizon. The sun shines, the tug flies. Twelve to sixteen hour days are not uncommon. Good days, bad days, marginal days... it's all the same. If it's flyable, you fly. Even for an absolute air-junkie like me, there are days. You're the guinne pig. "Take the tug up and see how roudy it is." "We're not sure how bad this is, take the tug up and let us know what you think." "The forecast says we'll be towing backwards at a thousand feet, go see if it's right."

Here's the thing. To some, that wouldn't sound all that great, but to a tug pilot, that's just dandy. We love to fly and we'll fly in some pretty knarly stuff. You have to love the knarly stuff. Everyone's seen those tugs land... you point them at the ground and then try not to hit it. I've seen the local police called to Quest on a number of occassions because someone driving past saw a tug land. They thought for sure that it had crashed... "It went straight in, just behind those trees."

Flying by the seat of your pants.
Tugs are flown by feel. Everything from rpms to airspeed. I've never met an accurate airspeed indicator on a tug. Even an accurate one won't be accurate in a turn, so we don't use them. Until you get the feel of it, you use your toes. I'm not kidding. You pay attention to where your toes are on the horizon. You hear the RPMs. You hear the prop cavitate as you near stall. The only instraments that I really care about are the engine temps and altitude. The engine's going to die on you anyway, but it's nice to know if you're gushing oil or not. The altimeter's there so you know when to wave someone off... you land by angles, just like a hang glider.

Tin can telephone.
Didn't everyone do the tin can telephone thing as a kid? Stretch two tin cans at the end of a string so you can talk through them. Kinda gives you an idea of how much you can feel through that tow rope. Thank god too, cuz that mirror vibrates all to hell and back. I can barely see the groundcrew give me the windup signal. That's why we yank on the rope for "go" sometimes... it's easier. At Quest, instructors bang on the rope when they want the tug to fly differently. Mostly what I can see in the mirror is if the guy I'm towing is in position or not. The "on the horizon" thing works both ways. I see this little glider blob thing back there, hopefully in the middle of the mirror. Sometimes they're at the top of the mirror, sometimes they're hangin off to the left and sometimes there's just a rope back there. If it dissapears to the top, I'm generally cursing at them (Pull in g**DAM%*T!!!). If it's off the left, I have someone to go catch. If it's off to the right, well, that's just a right turn... I can't see you anytime in a right. The hanging just left one always confuses me. People don't hang to the right, it's always left and consistently so. The whole tow, over there making life harder on themselves. The neatest thing about the tin can though is I can tell how people fly. You can feel how sharply they're moving. Are they a smooth operator or a wrestle the glider type? You can even tell when someone zipps up their harness (they let go of the bar and bounce a bit).

The first 200ft.
Getting out of the field is the trickiest part of towing. Once you're up and out of there, it's cake. Try and smooth out the bumps, catch people when they fall off the sides and try to find a thermal. You know what the other pilot tows like and what to expect if you wrap them up in a thermal. You can look out ahead and seach for thermal cues. Under 200ft is a whole other story. The first 50 are the hardest. They're also the scarriest. Take away everything else and the trick to the first 50 is the transition to climbing. It's always a dance. Once you leave the ground, you're looking to sync up with the glider. You're trying to rotate and climb up to the the glider without passing them. Sounds simple enough. People ask all the time to tow slower out of the field (which ain't gonna happen btw, quit asking). The truth of the matter is I can rotate up so fast that they can't follow me. It's not a speed thing, it's timing, on both ends of the rope. It's especially hard if the glider blasts out of the cart and sits high on me. It's physics... while they arc up, they're overaccellerating (hint hint, you'll come out of the field slower if you come out of the cart at the right time and maintain that 10ft). As I rotate up, if they let me catch up, the tow forces will decrease. If not, they're going to be high on me and it's pull-in-city for them.

Under 200ft, I'm not going to slow down to catch them. I don't know what they're going to do. Half the time I don't know who's back there. I don't know what kind of air we're about to hit and I already don't trust them (they're out of position). If I slow down and they push out, I'm a gonner (I'm not making this up, it's happened). I'm sorry to say it, but it's a far better thing for them to put the bar to their ankles than it is for me to slow down. I need 200ft minimum, under ideal circumstances to 180 the tug and land when (not if) the engine fails. If I'm towing out of the field, hanging on the edge of a stall when the engine quits, I stall. There is no recovery, I stall. There's no jaming the stick forward and saving it. I've got all my drag, plus the drag of the glider. My airspeed instantly drops below stall for the extreme nose high angle of attack I'm in. I have no sense of humor about it, the first 200ft are mine. My goal is to fly safely and smoothly out of the field. I hope the guy I'm towing is still back there after that. If they are, I can help out. The best I can do is try to make things smooth, slow ain't gonna happen.

Not knowing the guy on the rope.
One of the challenges of towing is half the time you have no clue who you're towing. There's a glider back there. Sometimes there's an ace at the wheel, sometimes it's a rookie. Sometimes they're paying attention, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they have a different idea about what they should be doing than the way you think it should be. One thing is for sure though... you're going to find out. One of the bad ju-ju signs is a launch potato. Launch potatoes scare tug pilots. Towing is serious stuff, especially to the tug pilot. Our runways is two hundred and fifty feet shorter than the gliders. That means that stuff at the end of the runway is a lot closer to us. When someone pulls up to launch and woops, forgot something, I for one get a little nervous. Whatever "it" is, they don't have their ducks in a row. The longer the wait, the higher the pucker factor. In any event, you find out in the first couple hundred feet how the tow is going to go for the next thousand.

Maryland pilots.
Oh yeah, here comes the dirt! Sorry, for the most part, MD pilots tow fine. Some can use a bit of polish while others are pros, but all in all towing here is a low(er) stress event. Every now and then someone tries to kill ya, but it's relatively rare. The irony to me is (and this seems universal, not just MD), the people that are worried about how they're doing on tow are the ones that are towing fine. It's the ones that think they're on it and aren't that scare me.

Springtime willies.
"I haven't flown in a year, do you think it's soarable yet?" Oh holy god... my pucker factor goes through the roof. They're no where near current and they're chosing the most challenging conditions for their first tow. One pattern tow in the morning would have made all the difference in the world. I can't believe how many times I've heard that. Springtime scares the piss out of me.

Tug pilot disease.
When you learn to fly the tug, you have to be very careful to avoid Tug Pilots Disease. Much like Glider Induced Divorce Syndrome, Tug Pilots Disease sets in gradually, kinda sneaks up on ya. One day you're learning to fly the tug. It's fun and amazing. The view from the front seat is out of this world. You sit out in front of the entire plane, wings included. It's just you and the sky. The day you solo is equal parts scary and overwhelming joy. Later on you learn to tow. At first it's H4s only. Then late day tandems. Here and there you get to tow. You work yourself into towing mid day. Now you're in the tug all the time. Eventually you can tow anyone, anytime. It's about this time that you may notice the first signs of Tug Pilots Disease. For some, it strikes even earlier. One day you ask youself (or some kind soul points it out for you) "When was the last time I flew my hang glider?" Denial always follows. It's ok because you've been hard at work learning to fly the tug right? Once things settle down, you'll get back to hang gliders right? There's millions of excuses. Time rolls on.

The more you fly the tug, the less you fly your hang glider. That old "I need airtime!" itch seems to get scratched on its own now. You just don't see the point in setting up a hang glider (hey, that's a lot of work) when you can take the tug up. "I'll fly tomorrow". These are the late stages of Tug Pilots Disease. Interventions are sometimes necessary to break the cycle... You'll know you're at an intervention when your freinds offer to setup your hang glider for you. You my friend have a full blown case of Tug Pilots Disease. It's time to seek professional help.

Follow Me.
The view from the front seat. Things every tow pilot wants you to know.

I don't mind pulling the tug out for "just one tow". You're not bothering me... I get to fly too!
Just don't potato

I'm your biggest fan.
We're your wingman. We're rooting for you. We're trying to stick you in a thermal. When you get off tow, look around for a second. Chances are you've been dropped off in, or hopefully close to, a thermal. We spend all day driving around hunting thermals in hopes of dropping hang gliders in them. Watching people imediately barrel out of lift twards other gliders (especially sinking ones) makes me want to cry. And hang on! I'm cheering for you (litterally, I yell at a lot of pilots). When you're back there struggling, rest assured I'm in the front doing the same. I want you to make it too. We brag about how many gliders we stick in lift.

Tug pilots are great at finding thermals.
It's what we do all day. We get lots of practice at it. When you learn to fly the tug, your thermalling skills invariably improve. The first thing you learn is to look at the day as a whole. The 2pm myth drives me nuts. The second is triggers are a load of hooie... fly the sky. Watch the ground for semi-colon windlines. Even being the moron that I am, I was in the air 2 minutes ago, I know where the thermals are... it's a big plus. That said... if I've been on the ground a while, I have to look around more.

Be ready.
Launch potaoes are scary and are wasting everyones time. Can you tell I have a pet peeve here?
Check out the best pilots... they're always ready to go when they get to the rope. It's no coincidence.

Getting the rope means you've scared the hell out of me. The rope is only given when there is no other option and there is imediate danger. It's time to step back and evaluate things.

Don't ask me about your tow. I've been towing gliders all day, I don't remember it. If I do, you probably don't want me to remember it. If you want my oppinion on your towing, ask before we go and I'll remember to remember.

Yes, the tug is as fun as it looks.

Don't complain about your tow. You'll like your next one less (see I'm your biggest fan above).

If you want to win your tug pilot over....
Stay in position, be smooth. It makes everyone's life easier.
Say thanks. It's not expected, but it's nice from time to time. (see I'm your biggest fan above).

If you really want to win your tug pilot over...
A beer at the end of the day is always quite tasty (I don't drink, but I eat the hell out of ice cream)
A quick snack/drink. We don't get to leave the flight line much even if we can get out of the tug.

If you really really want to win your tug pilot over...
Tip them. Tug pilots are poor as dirt. Kinda goes for hang gliding "professionals" in general.

Tug pilot truisms...
The engine will quit. Period. Get used to it.
The guy on the rope will try to lock out.
Once you get in the tug, you can't get out. Even if there is no one ready to tow, as soon as you unhook your seatbelt, someone will get ready.
Eat before you get in the tug (see above)
The bathroom is the third tree on the left (see above)
Bring your jacket. The day you don't is the day you do 5 "mile high" tows.
Did I mention the engine will quit?
Someone that will never fly will come up and ask about the engine.
Everyone will ask if it's soarable yet.
More right rudder!
Did I mention the engine will quit?

[jimrooney]

Thanks
I was mostly looking for the text anyway.

Jim

[mcelrah]

It was great to read it again! - Hugh

[brianvh]

I remember loving it the first time I read it years ago. I forgot just how good it was.

[Danny Brotto]

Jim

First time read for me... GREAT!

I'm going to send this to our sailplane towing corps... they will relate I'm sure!

Thanks,
Danny Brotto