Posts Tagged ‘Towing’

Towing as a means to gain altitude…

Monday, February 15th, 2010

 

Although it might sound a lot like those sketchy operations on the beaches in Mexico where they hook you up to an old parachute and drag you around aimlessly over the ocean, towing a paraglider or hang glider is much different. Not only are our aircraft fully controllable, we are towed using highly reliable equipment to heights of over 2500 feet above the ground. The equipment we use to gain altitude is generally referred to as a paraglider or hang glider tow winch. Once we arrive at the desired altitude, the towline is released and we are free to fly anywhere we may choose. Once up high, some people like to do aerobatics, some like to look for thermals and fly long distances, while others just enjoy the scenery and flight down casually. Towing aspiring pilots is also an excellent way to provide training that isn’t so dependent on the wind being perfect at the training hill.

 

There are many different types of tow methods that people use to gain altitude. The most common of the methods are static, pay in, and payout towing. Static towing could be assimilated to the sketchy parasailing operations on tourist beaches. Static refers to the towline length being fixed. Pay in towing is where the towline is laid out and then reeled in toward a fixed point. The last, and unarguably the safest method of all three, is the payout method. Payout means that the towline is gradually let out as the aircraft climbs away from the ground. The tension is precisely regulated during the payout to ensure a steady controlled climb. The highest altitudes are generally also achieved using the payout method.