Glider Tug Conversion Courses

[Rote 8]

Wondered if any of you folks were aware of places where I could complete a tug conversion course and possibly combined tail wheel differences training. I may have an opportunity to fly a Pawnee tug but have only limited gliding experience and have not flown a tail wheel type before. Are there places that offer specific training for tugging?

Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

[chrisN]

I have never heard of a tug course as such. All the tuggies I know at several gliding clubs acquired their skills by being a gliding club member and being shown the ropes, except for a very small number who started on their own initiative several decades ago - but I doubt if anyone would be able to be self taught these days.

There is a Super Cub at Stapleford, I believe, with a hook (used to be my gliding club's - Essex GC - and still occasionally tows). You could try there.

To be able to tow at any gliding site, however, you would need to be a member of that gliding club on some basis or other - temporary member at least.

Chris N.

[RatherBeFlying]

The deal at my glider club is that you have to have a tailwheel checkout done elsewhere as their insurance does not cover giving initial tailwheel training.

You then need a checkout on the Citabria at your expense followed by the requisite number of supervised tows until the chief towpilot is satisfied. The supervised tows start with single-seaters as it's asking quite a bit from the Citabria to carry two plus tow a two-seat trainer -- you will be interested in how much they weigh.

The Pawnee is said to be easier to fly, but is more expensive; so the emphasis is on keeping the cycles short while keeping the engine happy and keeping the a/c and rope safely away from gliders and people.

And yes, you have to be a member. That said, glider clubs may have a reduced tow pilot membership fee and other concessions -- but I'm not one to be a nun working in a maternity ward;)

[Emerald flyer]

Hi,

did mine at Thruxton several years ago (Super Cub). Found them to be very professional and welcoming. PM if you need more details.
Where are you doing your tugging? I flew a Super Cub and Pawnee when I was there in England.

regards

EM

[pilgrim flyer]

Hello R8

Could you define 'limited experience'?

Cheers

PF

[Rocket2]

Rote
Clubs have different policy's towards tug drivers, some allow gliding instructors only, others (mostly the full time operations) use qualified PPL's with no gliding experience. Why not ask what qualifications they expect you to have? As a minimum I would suggest that a tail wheel conversion course is the minimum to drive a Pawnee, simple & tractor like it may be but it will bite.

[TheBeeKeeper]

I believe there is a rule within the BGA comewhere that talks about 'combined experience' of 6 tows. This means that the glider pilot must have completed 6 solo tows if the tug pilot is on his first solo, and vice versa.

As a glider pilot and power pilot, I would say with my gliding hat on that I wouldn't want to be towed by a non glider pilot. Gliders can be very slippy and a tug pilot suddenly throttling back or decending for some reason can be very uncomfortable (as you pull along side the tug with a big bow in the rope.)

On a non safety aspect, glider pilots tend to read the weather and clouds a little better than most power pilots, and the turbulence caused by cumulus that most power pilots would avoid is exactly where the glider pilot wants to be dumped. When you pay £20+ for an aerotow, you want to be dropped in the best available lift in the sky!

TBK

[Sedbergh]

I second that!

I once had an "interesting" tow in France in a glass 2 seater behind an underpowered tug in which the tuggie was losing significant height in the turns.

Result - glider overtaking tug, huge bows in rope, cracked open airbrakes only made things worse -

- eventually had to abandon tow & scraped back to airfield! :{

[Rote 8]

Thanks for all of the responses folks. I was not expecting so many.

Emerald Flyer – the club is the Midland Gliding Club on the Long Mynd. I was a member there for 12 months a couple of years ago – a birthday gift. Unfortunately although I loved the flying I was trying to hour build for my CPL at the same time and did not spend enough time at the club to justify renewing the membership on my own account. I would like to carry on now but as I am trying to pay off an Instrument Rating I don’t think I can really afford to make it work out whilst trying to fly enough to keep current on powered aeroplanes.

Pilgrim flyer – My experience is really limited – 35 launches, almost all winch launches in K21’s apart from a handful of aero tows in K13’s for spinning – about 8 or 9 hours in all. I did not even go solo.

Rocket2 – I have asked them what qualifications they would like me to have, which is why I posted this enquiry. They would like me to complete a tug conversion course. The tug master suggested that they may offer one at Lasham but when I spoke to Lasham they seemed to be ‘lukewarm’ at best about the idea and indicated that they would be unwilling to offer me the training unless I was sponsored by the club that I was going to tug for. I got the impression that I was flogging a dead horse.

Thanks again for the responses. All good.

[gaxan]

I am in the midst of Tug training with my club. Most gliding clubs prefer glider pilots with a PPl rather than PPl's with some gliding experience.
My club requires a minimum of 100hrs P1 ,Tailwheel rating/conversion and at least a Bronze. Its not easy to get into from scratch, from my experience.
Having said all that, tugging is good fun and a brill way to keep the hours up.

[ProfChrisReed]

You might try calling Buckminster gliding club at Saltby airfield (just off the A1 near Grantham, website findable via www.buckminstergc.co.uk).

I flew my glider there last summer, and was told that they were doing a lot of motor glider training. Added to that, they were very friendly, laid back, not crowded (during the week) and helpful. It seemed to me the kind of club which might put together a course for you - worth asking.

And for glider pilots, worth a visit.

Closer to home, have you asked around at Shobdon? I've not flown there, but they aerotow and there's a busy aero club as well (www.shobdon.com).