Piper Pawnee/Brave towing experience

[HUSKYdriver69]

Hello Everybody,

I would like to ask about experience with Piper Pawnee/Brave as a glider towing machine.
fuel flows/time to 2000'/problems/different models/etc

thanks in advance!

MS

[jackx123]

can't remember FF (almost 30 years ago) but it's a great machine especially if equipped with a 4 blade prop. you can take off without tow in 50ft and it climbs like a jet.

what i also liked with the machine is that you can pull g's and exceed speed limits. this may not sound good but if you have 30 gliders waiting in the morning to get up you just get the shortest route back to the field.

cockpit is like a ballroom (space). i used to take back the glider pilots in the cockpit. yup it's that big, but i wished sometimes it was smaller with a hottie on board.

the BAD thing is if you get a stall at take-off. it will dive nose first into the ground. engine hits first, then the fuel tank behind and on top of it the pilot which is almost 100% fatal.


i used to fly the girl with both feet on the right rudder, usually after lunch after my right leg had worn out. trust me my record takeoff's in one day was 63.... a lot of the gliders were released at 400ft due to thermal updrafts.

i flew a lot towers but the pawnee is my baby.

there are cheaper alternatives but if you have high density then this is the machine to go for.

[ozaggie]

Wouldn't go near a Brave. Fuel cost too much for f-all performance gain over Pawnee

[Thud105]

The Pawnee is a great tug. In my experience two-bladers climb better than 4 but are a lot noisier. 260D has most grunt but C models handle better as they don't have fuel in the wings. So easy to land it barely qualifies as a taildragger.

[tommoutrie]

easy, rugged tug to operate. Thirsty compared to super cubs, robins etc but break less often. 260D was the nicest model I've flown and had the advantage of having the fuel in the wings which is slightly better in a crash as in the B its in a tank in front of you. I used to get about 13 tows between fills and put in 100 or so litres - that was towing to an average of 2500 (from memory and I'm old now so my brains have shrivelled up). If you cool them sensibly on the way down (initially you can't go down if you want to let the cylinders cool at a sensible rate) they tend not to crack and I don't think I've ever suffered or caused a cracked cylinder in a pawnee. If you get up and back on the ground in under 7 mins you have come down too quickly and will crack cylinders (maybe a bit quicker if you are good at climbing in the lift and descending in the sink). Don't let the airflow drive the engine on the way down as the balancer system gets unhappy and ruins the bearings. Very nice to field retrieve in because of the agricultural undercarriage and the wire cutters up the screen and on the legs. Inspires a bit of confidence. Lots of rudder authority when the glider pilots are going walkabout on tow. Dual tows are easy. Called a pawnee because if you fly one enough you will end up with a poor knee.

Great tug well suited to rougher fields and turbulent conditions but its probably possible to operate a robin or a cub for quite a lot less money.