Did our gliding club choose the right tow plane?

As a local resident I have to say the new plane is a vast improvement! No more having to pause whatever I'm watching as another glider is towed overhead 😂😂

"More pictures with groovy music". I swear to god, you're the best at defining chapters in your video's. I remember things like "Flying around like idiots" and so. It always makes my day :D

Congratulations 👍 Being a two seater is also a huge plus in qualifying new tow pilots.

Much of the extra power in a Pawnee is used up lifting it’s own weight and making more noise! The only real advantage is the initial pull. I found that a 180hp Citabria (the new High Country Explorer) was more than adequate even in the initial pull. Better still would be a 200hp Husky. That aircraft would the best of all worlds. One thing you might have trouble with over time is the nose gear.

Great looking aircraft and once the field dries out I’m sure you will have no issues on the ground. We have a 915 in a Eurofox (Phil’s UK club) and the engine has failed after 150 hours due to a piston failing. I would recommend regular leak down checks of the engine compression.

Iggy Wood! The man, the myth, the legend! Haven't seen him for about 30 years. Looking good Iggy!

I know from testing in xplane that the f14 is the best tow plane. You can get up nice and quick. Just be careful to remain outside the afterburner flame.

My local gliding club here in the U.K. has a Pawnee and yes, fuel burn and maintenance are an issue but it would probably get the club’s ASK21 airborne without it having wings attached 😂. A Kitfox has been used in the past though usual duties go to a Super Cub with larger engine.

Being on grass field, might be a good idea to remove the wheel pants.

Was an accountant for my local gliding club in Norway. They swapped their Pawnee for a Dynamic with a 912 Edge Big Bore in 2014. With that experience I can say congratulations to you!!! You made the right choice!

Pawnee forever! You can buy a heck of a lot of fuel for $320,000! Did you consider a winch? I see the official runway length is 1371m but on Maps it looks like more like 1500m fence to fence, which is not bad for a winch. You could also keep the Pawnee to tow to the ridge. If the ground roll is similar to a 180 Cub then that's fine. Good luck with it!

Thanks for sharing the interviews with the tow pilots - they're impressions are so important. There is quite a lot of experience among that crew! Is the aircraft configured so that, in the future, a higher HP engine can be fitted or the current engine upgraded? It seems some additional HP would be welcomed by the pilots!

Oh I wish it had been a DC3 🙂 Still very nice though

Thanks Tim, very helpful!

We’ve just done the same, sold our Pawnee and bought a Bistrell at Geneva gliding club. The climb rate is incredible compared to anything I’ve been towed behind, not to mention the fuel efficiency.

Wow what a great insight into the clubs new toy, beautifully presnted with all the mod cons. I had the opportunity to read Phils assessment followiing his trip to Perth, no embellishment just pure robust facts based on his ovesrvations. Well done Team on the new tow plane. Looking forward to experience this in summer.

Probably the craziest ever: Walther Extra mit seiner Extra 300 ! Probably the best I have had towing me: Robin DR 400 mit Porsche PFM 3200. Our "standard" was always a PA 18 Supercup - easy and reliable. Well and not to forget the old PZL104 Wilga from Poland.

Very interesting. I towed with a Pawnee that had a reputed?? 400 horsepower engine. That was nice until a wheel ripped off on landing due to corrrosion. That was a bumpy horizontal cartwheel down the runway. But I cut my teeth on a Cessna 150 with 180 horse conversion. It was the best I would say. Towed a Nimbus3 loaded to the gills once. Never did that again. Cleared the runway end fence (4,000 ft runway) by about ten feet. But the one that literally saved my life twice (and probably the glider pilots' lives) was an AgCat with an r985 radial engine with 450 horses. Many many stories about towing .....

NUMBERS.... According the video 11:43 1.1 ltr for 1000 ft with the Bristel. 2.5 liters /1000ft for the Pawnee. And now our winch numbers on a 1200 m field, INCLUDING (!!!) the fuel used for the jeep to tow the cable back. So total fuel used. Average release 450 m; 7000 ltr used for 5000 starts = 1.4 liter / start = say 1 liter for 1000 ft.. The same as the Bristel, but count the maintenance cost for the Rotax also. These engine are NOT cheap.

Awesome choice! Milan and his team at Bristell make a fantastic airframe! Also we should have more and more prolific parking cameras all over aircraft now to drive a vision-system based traffic detection system, but I digress...