Carl,

I fly aerotow gliders and I'm currently scratch building a 3m Schweizer TG-2 for aerotow. Normally for aerotow you're looking at 3m to 6m gliders and 1/4 to 1/3 scale high powered tow planes like the Hangar 9 Piper Pawnee. When it comes time to maiden my glider next summer I'm going to have an experienced aerotow pilot fly it for the maiden as I feel I don't have enough experience on aerotow to deal with some of the issues that could come up. Due to the close proximity of the two planes attached to each other (approx. 25m or less) both pilots need to have a bit of skill. There is a group in Texas who have started working with smaller 2m and standard class gliders for aerotow and are going through a learning curve - and these are very experienced pilots. I'm currently working on design modifications for a Sig Kadet Senior to use as a tow plane.

Gliders taken piggyback on something like a Kadet Sr., Kadet LT-40, Telemaster 40, Sr. Telemaster, etc. are easy to do. The trick is to build a good cradle that will hold the plane securely yet cleanly release the glider on command every time. Flying the glider after the release is the easy part.

Unless you have access to a good glider, and a tow plane with an experienced and competent pilot and a good instructor for your first few aerotows, I'd suggest you keep away from this route until you have a lot more experience. But for cradle launching a glider, if you have the correct plane and a good launch pilot, go for it. The small added weight strapped to the top of a big plane like a Kadet Sr. won't drastically alter it's ability to get off the ground - it'll just require a slightly longer roll and won't climb as good which is par for the course. If you want to go this route I highly recommend you look into the glider forums in both RCU and RCGroups and learn all you can on cradle launchers and setting up a launch plane.

Hogflyer