I just spent three+ weeks down in southern Texas chasing a world record with team members Cody Mittanck and Donizete Lemos, and our tow techs/ retrieve drivers Greg Bryl, Greg Cusick and Ricardo Costa. We had marginal weather at best, which leaves the world record hunting for another year, but we did a ton of tows in very strong conditions and we all learned a ton (and thankfully we did get a few pretty awesome flights). This podcast is dedicated to towing and towing safety in an interview I did with the “eWinch” inventor, Greg Bryl with Miami Paragliding. Greg is an expert tow-tech and his knowledge of tow systems is vast. We used his all-electric winch in really rocking conditions and were all blown away with it’s lightness, ease-of-use, and redundant fail-safes for safety.
I am convinced after this trip that with a good winch and good tow-technician, launching via tow is much safer than foot launching and gives the free flight world access to incredible flying in conditions when terrain flying would be too risky. If you are currently doing any tow launching, or plan to in the future give this podcast a listen.
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Show Notes:
TOW SAFETY
4 main areas: rig safety, pilot knowledge/skill, attachment, and conditions
RIG SAFETY:
* rig: almost any rig can seize/bind or otherwise put too much tension on the pilot.
* With payout you add the power of the car – pay-in may be safer in this regard
* so care should be taken to eliminate that as much as possible
* use a weaklink: it’s a double-edged sword b/c you remove some risk factors while introducing others; if recommend no WL, probably hasn’t towed enough
* use lower pressure in initial phase of tow; watch the pilot closely, etc.
* have hook knife at rig
* if rig binds and brakes WL close to ground, better to overbrake and stall the wing and fall down than pendulum into ground
WEAKLINK:
* even if it’s weak, it will not break in time if rig seizes and goes from paying out to static line with the car moving and full car power applied to pilot. So don’t fall in trap of thinking a weak WL can’t get you in trouble; use a strong enough WL and change it OFTEN, especially in high winds
PILOT:
* must hold wing overhead enough for tow to start safely; strong wind –kiting skills, weak wind — must run backwards or forwards to create airspeed and keep overhead; must fly wing at all times and stay on course, including running out launch; must have hook knife
* must manage cross-wing (see Conditions below)
* also here: weak winds, driver rolls to take up slack as pilot walks back towards car; strong wind — leave slack or keep tension down so that pilot can run towards wing to pull it up (or better yet- use cobra launch).
ATTACHMENT:
* no tow bridle on market that’s satisfactory in all respects. some let you put the pin ring through the loop so can’t release – bad; some don’t allow you to release easily at full tension and/or at no tension; some have metal – not ideal, some don’t attach to glider/beaners the right way, etc.; gotta make sure you use your model correctly
* speed assist: like WL, good and bad. good: it auto-corrects heading of wing so that new pilots don’t’ ...
