logoalt Hacker News

asegtoday at 12:34 AM1 replyview on HN

In gliding, tow upsets are pretty common and, in rare cases, can be fatal. An out-of-position glider out can _easily_ and very quickly overcome the tow planes elevator authority (ability to pitch up or down) which leads to accidents like this. This video does a good job explaining explaining the root causes and potential dangers (https://youtu.be/5cpqFzhM9dY?si=J7GxP1dI9Xopy3xu). Also read the comments from testimonials from other glider pilots.

This is my biggest concern with this concept as well. Towing things is challenging because the tow plane's center of gravity can change drastically depending on the forces on the glider it is towing -- if the glider deploys its spoilers / crabs in a crosswind / gets in your wake turbulence you're not going to be able to predict how it changes your CG (and your control authority) without training or experience. Also, with gliders, the tow plane is traveling at around 60MPH to 90MPH, with a decision window of 2-3 seconds. Commercial planes travel at ~500 MPH... The concept seems like a hard sell to the pilot unions. I bet they've thought about this though.


Replies

tgsovlerkhgseltoday at 1:58 AM

> An out-of-position glider out can _easily_ and very quickly overcome the tow planes elevator authority

Would this not be trivially solvable with a system that detects the situation (e.g. by measuring the forces acting on the towing plane's attachment point) and detaches the tow? If in the final concept the towed plane would be unmanned and wouldn't contain fuel, even a crash would not be particularly catastrophic.

show 3 replies