Favorite Glider Tow?

[Railrunner130]

I've been occasionally toying around with different glider tows. My favorite glider is the HO-IV. As a result, I've used the default Maule and even tried the HO-9 (a bit fast I think) and Tim Conrad's Northrop N-9MB. (Seems about right.)

What are your favorite glider tows?

[CodyValkyrie]

I'm using the Carenado 185. With Cumulus 1.8 (licensed), I set it up to use 1 notch of flaps and a pitch of 9.5. Works well so far.

Some other planes that might work well:
DA DO-27
Aerosoft Beaver X
Aerosoft Bushhawk
Carenado 206G

I know there are others, but these ones strike me as having great lift with an acceptable speed.

[ManuelL]

I'm using the Carenado 185. With Cumulus 1.8 (licensed), I set it up to use 1 notch of flaps and a pitch of 9.5. Works well so far.

Some other planes that might work well:
DA DO-27
Aerosoft Beaver X
Aerosoft Bushhawk
Carenado 206G

I know there are others, but these ones strike me as having great lift with an acceptable speed.

The Do 27 can tow well, but the model is so complex that the prop doesn't turn when you use it as AI. The Bushhawk is a very strong tow plane, also pretty fast and it tends to go into an increasingly steep turn to one side due to the asymmetric fuel consumption.

I have made very good experiences with the Cessnas (182, 185, 206) and the Beaver. If you are looking for a slower tow plane, you might try a Super Cub (it is too slow for a Discus with water balast, but for you it might be perfect).

[Dain Arns]

WinchX.

(About second entry down the page in the link below)
http://luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/

Make launching interesting, especially if you break the cable... :d

[PutPut]

Actually, you can use any airplane you want for a tow. I use a D-Day striped C-47 for my Waco CG-4 and a Halifax or Stirling for my Airspeed Horsa. This works because when you change a tow plane in FSX all you are doing is replacing the visual model of the default Maule with the visual model of your choice. The flight dynamics remain the same as the Maule. The default tow values are a forward speed of 103-104 knots and a vertical speed of 1000 ft/sec.
The trick is to match the glider dynamics to the default DG808S. If your glider is too fast it will run up on the tow plane and break the cable. If it is too slow, it will break the cable. My simple but inelegant solution is to give the glider of my choice the flight dynamics of the DG808S.

Cheers, Paul

13030

[heywooood]

I use this AgCat...

[CodyValkyrie]

Actually, you can use any airplane you want for a tow.

Cheers, Paul

Not totally true. If you are using some of the various towing utilizes, how the plane reacts may and will change.

[PutPut]

That might be; the only tow utility I tried was "Aerotow" which on investigation leaves the Maule .cfg file untouched, it just changes the title and sim name. It does change the AI path for the tow plane which is really neat. Unfortunately, it gave me nothing but fits, CTD, when I upgraded to FSX Acel and I got rid of it. The last version I had was dated 2008. Does anyone know if the author went further with this little utility?

Paul

[Daube]

That might be; the only tow utility I tried was "Aerotow" which on investigation leaves the Maule .cfg file untouched, it just changes the title and sim name. It does change the AI path for the tow plane which is really neat. Unfortunately, it gave me nothing but fits, CTD, when I upgraded to FSX Acel and I got rid of it. The last version I had was dated 2008. Does anyone know if the author went further with this little utility?

Paul

Aerotow works perfect and lets you choose any aircraft you want as a towing plane.
And if you choose a jet, the towing cable won't resist, because the jet will fly like a jet, not like a Maule.

[Ferry_vO]

I once tried towing a 737 behind a 747; it works but you will have to remove the engines and fuel of the 737 otherwise FsX doesn't see it as a glider. The cable stretched to about 2 miles before the 737 started moving, but it didn't break!

:icon_lol:

[PutPut]

Aerotow works perfect and lets you choose any aircraft you want as a towing plane.
And if you choose a jet, the towing cable won't resist, because the jet will fly like a jet, not like a Maule.

Daube, Can you tell me the version or date of your Aerotow installation? Sounds much better than the version I tried.

Thanks, Paul

[Daube]

Daube, Can you tell me the version or date of your Aerotow installation? Sounds much better than the version I tried.

Thanks, Paul
Hmm... filename says "aerotow 2008-02-26 23-53.zip"
So I guess it's the same that you tried, isn't it ?

[PutPut]

Hmm... filename says "aerotow 2008-02-26 23-53.zip"
So I guess it's the same that you tried, isn't it ?
Nope, not at all. I didn't keep up with this program and the one I had was earlier and didn't have that nifty little configurator interface. I'll try it tonight and if it doesn't CTD looks like it might be the cat's meow! Thanks for the HU!

Paul

[Daube]

I hope it will work :)
If so, I'd recommend you the Antonov An-2 from Vlad Z. (if you tolerate FS9 port-overs in your FSX hangar), or Piglet's UPF-7 :)