Going Towing - in Fairfield County, CT

[Steve P]

Thought I'd start a thread for the group here in the southern part of CT and Westchester County, NY. There is a handful of towplanes now in action and a good group of folks flying scale.

Post here if you're headed out to fly as a way to let others know there is the opportunity to get some stick time. Likewise, come back here and post your reports, comments or other news following a flying session.

Let's continue to build this great hobby and find opportunities to fly together.

[Steve P]

Okay, I'll go first. We flew today for a brief time at Waveny Park in New Canaan as part of the Sunday morning flying session that NCRC holds each week. It was a good chance to get some actual tows on the J3 Cub that has been converted over to the Rimfire 50cc motor. Tom M was flying a t-tail sailplane, I can't recall which one, and on our first tow he needed a bunch of up trim and I needed down on the towplane so just blasting that 50cc into full solved the problem and got us up and away with room to make a few needed trim changes.

On Conio's little 28, the key was to find the throttle setting that worked for that one. There, I was too conservative, but we quickly found a nice pace to altitude. Tom made some further adjustments and added a bit of camber on tow which had his plane tracking better on the subsequent flights. We event got Bob M to take a ride on his ASG29.

All in all a good bit of fun and nice to see what the Cub can do. We did have one huge catastrophe when a helicopter cut behind the tug on landing. The heli missed the Cub itself, but you can probably figure out the rest of the story. The stout towline trailing behind had no respect for rotors and the heli was a complete loss. I absolutely HATE when things like that happen knowing how much time (and how much $) we all put into our models. It's a big sky, but models can and do get too close at times.

In the core summer months we lose the field at 11AM, so after nine tows it was time to pack up. The Rimfire 50cc is a nice motor that I think might be better on 10S turning a larger prop -- I'll update the Rimfire thread later today if I have any real data to share. Bob's new dolly worked flawlessly -- I assume he'll report that in the dolly thread.

So, a short, sweet and sad morning in the sunshine all in one.

[Bob Morrow]

It was a great day at Waveny. Steve Pasierb was a most excellent tow pilot for us, schlepping our planes quickly and safely up to altitude with grace. He has really got his Cub working well and it has more than enough power to pull anything up to about 5m or even 6m possibly with no problems at all (I would say up to 25lbs as a guess on weight potential, but Steve can give a better estimate than I can.

Fortunately we were able to field test the dolly today, as Steve had shared. Seems to work well from what we observed. More on that on the thread I started on the dolly.

I was able to get a beautiful flight in with my HF Model 5m ASG-29......Steve towed it with out any effort and it was up to altitude for a great flight and also a nice level landing at the end.

Tom and Connio both got several great flights in also today. The was some wind and that made the thermals a bit sketchy, but we were able to find some good bubbles here and there and hang in for some nice flights.

I had brought my Super Cub for towing duty also, but unfortunately has some control glitches that had to be sorted out in the shop once I got home (always good to have the correct servo connections on the receiver, or else the controls don't work to well LOL). Another great reason to have a good labeler for keeping track of servo leads and the receiver inputs they go to !

The Super Cub is ready for towing now that I have the leads corrected, and I'll also have a second, more powerful Super Cub ready for towing services in the very near future, more on that one in the electric towplane threads very soon.

[Len]

Sounds like a great time guys. I'm jealous. Just wondering, what happend after the chopper got tangled? Did you have to release or?

Len

[Steve P]

Definately "or." Just like when a heli hits the ground, as soon as it got disrupted it tore itself apart. Really ugly. He was very upset, but it's just one of those really sad and unfortunate things.

[Len]

Sorry to hear that. Sure sucks when things go bad. I hope he learned not to fly within 80 feet of a towplane.

LEN

[Steve P]

That's the key issue. The feeling is that at a busy field, the towline and helicopters are incompatable thereby the towline is the problem/fault. Given that airplanes generally tend to fly in the same pattern, there is much more compatability among fixed wing aircraft, yet still risk. We see this at all of the other flying sites were fixed wing and aerotow operations co-exist successfully. I offered to work with the club's president and safety officer to find a way to preserve some level of towing at the site given a few years of proven success at that location. I certainly don't want to see anyone's aircraft damaged at any level, so we'll just have to see if a course forward can be found.

[Bob Morrow]

I fully agree with Steve on his comments.

As a longstanding member of this club and previous president I have had many concerns about the safety issues and flying areas within the boundaries of Waveny Park.

We have on many occasions tried to have various different types of aircraft fly in different areas of the park due to these concerns. The park does allow for an area for helicopter pilots to fly and maneuver somewhat safely away from the fixed wing flight line and flight area, yet this is not a required practice on a regular basis...........it should be a required practice (in my humble opinion).

Additionally, from my experience flying helicopters, I would suggest the concentration on the model helicopter is very high, not allowing knowlege or vision of other people flying. Another concern I have always had is that anyone flying helicopters must have a co-pilot standing with them and watching for other aircraft/people/or any other issues that may come up. It is much easier to maneuver a helicopter out of the way of a landing approach and final of fixed wing aircarft than it is for the fixed wing aircraft to maneuver (especially if they are unpowered aircarft or sailplanes that have only one approach to make !).

Being a person that flies a variety of aircraft...........including helicopters..........I have tried to be an example of how flying the helicopters away from the fixed wing aircarft can and does work very well. Unfortunately there are many differences of opinion about this from various members of the club for a wide range of reasons.

As Steve discussed previously the event on Sunday was a very unfortunate accident that does not have fault with any of the pilots involved..........it was a case of two aircraft being in close proximity of eachother and consequences due to that fact.

There is a real need for communication and expectations of safe flying habits/rules/proceedures to be clearly resolved and agreed upon so that all of us can enjoy the hobby safely and also hopefully not lose any of our models to unfortunate incidents.

Respectfully,

Bob

[Steve P]

Aerotow in full swing on Sunday, July 3 at RC Probusters in Salem. We'll be using the Pegaus w/ 3W 120 and the smaller Taxi w/ 40 -- so the full range of sailplanes are welcome and will have an appropriate tug. Should be flying at least 10a-4p if not later. We'll be arriving at the field by 9 or 9:15. Len and I are both RCP members, so you're welcome to fly as our guests.

Sorry for the late notice.

Steve

[Steve P]

Well. So much for weather forecasting and wishful thinking. Len and Don may have flown a bit, but since it was raining as I was packing the Peg into the trailer this morning, yours truly did a lot of workshop time today.

Next weekend in the annual RC Propbusters "Fly What You Bring" event. Ned, myself and several others attended this for many years when it was their memorial electric fly. All are welcome July 9-10 at the field in Salem. A nice place to fly and a great group of people! Len and I are planning on having the tugs there on Saturday. Le's go tow!

http://www.rcpropbusters.com/news/11/june11.pdf

Now all we need is a good, realistic forecast.