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Old 1st Oct 2015, 19:32
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Crankshaft
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
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I've never towed with a Decathlon even though I have lots of towing experience with pretty much everything else. The Decathlons are pretty rare here and only a few of them have the towing equipment still in place. The one I fly had it removed at some stage long time ago.

Based on that I would make an educated guess about the characteristics of towing with it:
The constant speed prop should give a very good acceleration. A cub would probably come of ground earlier (especially on a softer field) if using the flaps for take-off. Therefore I guess the compared take-off distance would be dependent on the actual surface. If it's critical you should try to test fly both the Cub and the Super D at your own or a similar field.
I don't know what climb rates would be if you compared them. The Super D has a spectacular climb rate when flying solo but I would not try to guess what it's like when towing. They have very different wing profiles, however the Decathlon has an advantage in the constant speed prop that can give you a very efficient fine pitch for climbing.

As Unusual Attitude says: Speed control is essential in a Super D. The dive and approach following the tow will have to be much more planned than in a Super Cub. In the cub you can keep pretty high speeds up until approach. If you then pitch up slightly to lose the speed you can extend the flaps and still need power to maintain profile and speed in the end. The Super D is much more critical when it comes to energy management. I'd say that you maybe need to be a little bit more careful in who you select to tow in a Dec. On the other hand if there is only a handful of you, and you are all co-owners and/or fairly experienced pilots there should not be any problem.

I've done quite a lot of training in Super D's (and Cubs as well).
The Super Decathlon is quite easy to learn tail wheel techniques in. Most students get the hang of it fairly quickly. It has less nose up attitude and better forward visibility in three point landings than the Cub and I think that's why they learn quicker. (I don't know if other instructors would agree, but thats my experience).
However, as an instructor I have significantly less forward visibility from the aft seat in the Dec due to the approach attitude. (The lack of flaps makes the approach attitude very much nose-up). I know of at least one landing accident due to this.

It's not an easy choice between both of them, but if you have even the slightest wish for an aerobatic capable aircraft I would definitely recommend the Super Decathlon. However if you're never going to do any aeros, then the Cub would probably marginally beat the Super D on most other aspects.
Just to add also that a constant speed prop is significantly more expensive to maintain than the fixed pitch on the Cub.
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