Overview:
A 5-20 horsepower scooter is mounted to a trailer. A drum replaces the back wheel and is wound with several thousand feet of spectra line. A return pulley is attached to a screw in the ground about 1000 feet upwind of the scooter. The tow line is taken buy an ATV to the pulley and then back to the glider beside the scooter. A traffic cone is placed on the ground along side the tow line 200 feet short of the return pulley as a target to land beside .
With the student standing next to the scooter operator / instructor, it is easy to give instruction in a conversational tone. In no wind the launch consists of two walking and several running steps to get flying. If the student makes a mistake you simply close the throttle and land them. The tow line stays attached to the student for early flights right through the landing, so they do not have to worry about releasing it. After about ten flights the instructor switches them to a Falcon 2 and gradually pulls them higher. During this phase of training we teach them how to release the tow line and do small turns. These tows go up to an altitude of about 75 feet.
Higher and Higher
Once they have mastered the release and small turns we switch to a 150cc scooter. With more power and a longer tow line he will pull them up as high as 700 feet. The release and bridle for this stage of towing is similar to a truck tow set up, with the tow bridle going through loops near the pilot's hips and then up to the carabiner. There are two different length bridle lines attached to the tow line and then to a three string release, and a barrel release. The top line is released by the pilot at about 100 feet and now the line running under the base tube provides the tow force. In this stage of training the student will learn approach patterns and they will eventually be landing right back at the scooter for their next tow. Now they can get multiple tows with virtually no walking at all!
Low stress:
This is probably the least stressful method ever done in the sport of Hang Gliding. The 330 Condor flys very slowly, and you are gently pulled for hundreds of feet across level ground just five feet above it. Committing to running head long down a hill is not required.
Low fatigue:
We drive a four wheeler out to pull the tow line back for the next flight while the student just rolls the glider back on the wheels. We use the time driving next to the student to critique their flight. Because there is no hill to climb, the student can get many more flights in a day before becoming tired.
Lots of takeoffs and landings:
It's easy to get ten or more flights per hour. This gives the students lots of practice in the two most import aspects of flight operations - launches and landings.
Replace other forms of towing?
Like other forms of winch towing you can't necessarily tow the pilot to the lift like you can when areotowing. However, because it is so inexpensive to operate, and so easy to get multiple flights, you can get in a lot of flying (and launches and landings) in a very short time. The scooters are also very low noise compared to tow planes so there should not be problems with the neighbors.
Not foolproof:
Even a small scooter, if misused, can be dangerous. If the scooter is used in conditions that are too strong, or if the pilot were allowed to over-fly the return pulley while attached to the tow line the results could be disastrous. As we've all learned the hard way over the years, when towing is involved there seems to be an almost infinite number of things that can go wrong if extreme care and judgment are not used. It does seem that the lighter the available tow force, the slower, and safer the tow will be. Steve is very conservative in his methods and stops towing the Condor as soon as the wind becomes more than a gentle breeze.