Glider Dual Tow Goes Wrong: Instructor Reacts! 

Having years of both tugging and gliding under my belt. My only comment is that the tug pilot must have been well and truly relieved to have those two gliders well and truly gone.

Well …… there’s a lot to be said for a proper briefing , that includes being absolutely sure everyone has a full understanding of what’s being done …..

First off, that Pawnee is way too clean. A credit to the club. And, once again, thank you to the folks involved for releasing the video. How not to do it and managing to recover.

If I was the tug pilot I would be having words with both pilots.

It could end much worse, if the rope would stuck into the aileron, blocking it in non-neutral position. I know of such an accident that happened in Poland, the pilot in similar situation wanted to shake off the rope from the wing, applied aileron and rope moved there and blocked. Sadly, that did not end well...

The tow done properly was a thing of beauty. The other? Whew, pretty chilling!

You can really see that the tow pilot is having to work right rudder quite a bit. I wonder why he didn't radio the lower glider to move into a better position? Aside from a proper briefing, there's also communication. Our field is too short for this sort of thing, so we've no experience doing this. Thanks for sharing this.

Good reaction from the tow pilot. I'm quite surprised that the glider pilot was able to get so far out of position, and would love to hear the cause 'from the horse's mouth'. It's real easy to jump to conclusions that would dismiss the glider pilot's skills, but he/she is probably perfectly skilled in flying but something was omitted in this case?

Never done a dual tow - and learnt something today! Thanks Tim!

Did a lot of tugging before continuing my pilot career. The danger is when you have a lot of inexperienced pilots around you. Then anything can happen. The scariest for me was when a friend of mine was tugging a glider with the old version of a Pawnee, the one that has the fuel tank between the engine and the cockpit, the worst possible position for a fuel tank. At the start the glider pilot had not coupled the elevator correct and had not done a sufficient steering column check, so with no elevator control the glider went straight up pulling the tail of the tow plane hard up at lift off. So in fractions of a second the tow plane crashed into the ground before the tug pilot was able to release the rope. His Pawnee caught a fierce fire and my friend was burned to death in front of his two young daughters. My take from this as a tug pilot was to always,always have your eyes glued to glider at take off and your hand on the release handle.

We used to do plenty of double tows in the mountains of British Columbia moving gliders from airport to airport. The turbulence is strong and we found it much better to just stay horizontal on high tow, short glider just a bit higher than normal. The tug was then just yanked from side to side rather than up and down with the stall horn blaring. The other benefit was that in low-tow the glider would get covered in oil from the L-19 birddog tug. Not by the book, but we swore by it.

Thanks for showing this. Brought up so many emotions for me as someone who has actually done a dual tow. It just made me thankful that the people I did mine with (many years ago) knew what they were doing and we (ALL) were properly briefed. I would say all 3 were LUCKY they didn't end up in a spiral mess hurtling,,,, well you know. And after all that, the glider on the left (pilots facing) turns RIGHT, right into the path of the right glider, I just about freaked out. Anyway, glad you showed video 2 - I will go flying with those guys any time.

Great that you post these videos. It is very instructive and useful to learn from other people's mistakes. You never get old enough to learn everything from your own mistakes.

The cameraman on the wing captured it very well.

Thank you Tim for another great lesson.

In any briefing with critical items the best process is using repeat back. The instructor says to the low pilot. “When the top glider moves to the center high position, you move over and assume the normal low tow position.” Then the low pilot repeats back those instructions word for word. (At a USA nuclear power plant, the instructor would repeat it back again, three way communications. It becomes so instinctive to Operators that they will do it back to their wife, usually with a bad outcome)

Thanks Tim for sharing this experience with the community. My experience of a dual tow was during my student training, I was towed by a Sterman and the gliders were a Puchacz and PW5. It was a linear trailer, with a briefing more than clear. Hugs... Thank you Tim for sharing this experience with the community. My experience of a trailer dual was during my investigation of student, I pulled a Sterman and gliders were a Puchacz and PW5. It was a trailer-linear, with a breafing more than clear. Hugs... 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

I"ve flown dual tows a couple of times. It was a pretty cool experience, but being towed for 110 miles with increasing turbulence from mountains was a bit stressful at times.

Wow dual tow, never knew this was a thing. Looks impressive but also dangerous but I'm not even a novice. Well narrated and good filming from the different angle. Would love to try a filght in a sailplane as only done powered flight. Cheers all.

That tow pilot is great. That could have ended horrible. He did exactly the right thing.

Thanks Tim. As you know up until last year when the narrowing of the Raglan Airfield made it unsafe to have 2 gliders on the runway concurrently our Piako Gliding Club annually dual towed the 2 Club Puchacz’s from Matamata to Raglan while the Scouts took over our Airfield for the Walsh Memorial Flying School. For tow pilots who had not done dual tows before there we’re always practice tows & extensive briefings. Glider pilots always flying with an experienced Instructor in dual tows in the back seat. I’ve great photos & video of being the glider on the long rope at the back. Malcolm Piggott has an excellent video you may want to post as a follow up on how to do a double tow correctly & safely.

Fantastic that you also included a video of how it should be done!

Your narration is so compelling! Clear and unambiguous! Massive respect.

Excellent discussion! I have not been a tow pilot for a long time, did back in the mid 1970s. I soared for only four or five year, them learned the AF way and on my way to Vietnam. There was many a time when the glider would just get to high in the tow and it would take longer to reach the release point. Soared over Pikes Peak and did chandelles gaining altitude on just about ever circuit. And learned to read the dust devils' in Arizona. Many fond memories....... Thank you for helping me remember.. Have clear skys.....

Another thing done wrong was the turn after release. The pilot in the higher/shorter position should have turned left, not right, given that the other glider was on his right. Likely a case of habit, always turning ti the right expecting the towplane to go left. The pilots should have had a prior agreement that the left glider foes left, the right glider goes right and the towplane carries on straight forward.

Wow, that's a lot of stick deflection on the tug before releasing the tow.

Never done a dual tow - and learnt something today! Thanks Tim!. Never done a dual tow - and learnt something today! Thanks Tim!.

Amazing footage!

Of course, we are not hearing any radio traffic between the planes, and I would like to know if there is radio traffic between the planes. If I were the Tow Pilot and I ran out of rudder authority towing two aircraft, I would be on that radio instantly and warn the pilots…

My Dad flew CG-4A Gliders in WW2. He said he'd done a few of these. But the US Army Air Corps, in short order banned them as they were very deadly. The T/Os he loved the most were the snatch (don't remember the technical term) where a C-47 would fly low and snag the nylon rope and up they would go. My Dad said it was definitely an E-TICKET RIDE!

Almost get the idea the tow pilot was ready for that. I'm sure looking down and across to your glider is a good gibe away! Well done

Thank you for showing the correct procedure in the end for us newbies. :)

I am subscribed to you. I'm a big glider fan and watching you Tim. Thank you for your work.

absolutely love your demeanor man....one of the most "un-stressful" people I know of. You'd make a great co-worker lol

Another great video. As a tuggie (long ago) I'd do everything I could to give the glider pilot what they wanted - height AGL and a good position for lift or a landing (or maybe just one of those), despite any antics happening behind me unless I felt in peril (never did). This tug pilot did a great job.

I love how the top glider just nopes the hell out of there with a hard right once things go wrong.

Again a good video to learn from ! Thank you !

You would think there would be a group meeting before take off, so everyone understands what's expected of them.

Fascinating video Tim, I've never seen a dual tow before. In a sport like this where safety is so critical, I should think there was lots of training required before giving this a go.

I learned to fly in TG~2 and later was a tow pilot. Never did a double tow. Never had to dump a tow. The video gave me the shivers!

Did half a dozen triple tows in CEB ... many dual tows and one low level upset / at Matamata regionals which nearly put me through the trees... all good fun...

I don't know how they did it . But when I was in Norway I saw an air tow with 4 gilders behind a tug , one behind the other. If my memory server me right they were all K8's and K13's.

Did about 6 triple tows at the Auckland Club in CEB... one dual upset release at Matamata regionals... quite exciting...

Great situational awareness on the part of the tow pilot!

During the late 1970s in the UK there were a series of accidents involving gliders pulling up abruptly behind the tug with the tug's tail being pulled up often resulting in a fatal accident to the tug. The glider was, typically a Ka6E which only had a belly hook, a very light elevator and an inexperienced pilot. The BGA had asked us at Booker to investigate what happened and I was given the, unenviable, job of tug pilot in a 180 hp Super Cub. What we found was that if the glider (a Ka 13 on the belly hook) was gently climbed out of position the combination could reach a stable situation with the tow rope at an upwards angle of 45 degrees from the tug, the Ka 13 at almost full up elevator and the Super Cub still fully under control. We had a chase plane with a photographer (actually he was David Attenborough's film camera man) taking pictures of it which I still have somewhere. We later tried the Ka13 making a rapid climb and the outcome was very different. On the first one I attempted to keep the Super Cub under control by pulling on the stick. The result of this tussle was that the tug's tailplane stalled resulting in a very violent pitch down to near vertical with a fair amount of negative G (my head hit the metalwork in the top of the cabin). Since it was at 2000 ft there was plenty of time to recover and I was, of course expecting something to happen. We then tried the same manoeuvre but without me getting into a pulling match with the glider. This resulted in the tugs tail being gently lifted, the tug starting a descent and almost immediately the weak link breaking. The tug remained under control throughout. The moral seemed to be don't pull, although this obviously didn't work if you were very near the ground. The purpose of the tests, all done without radio contact bye the way, was to try to find a way of making an automatic release on the tug. Several attempts at this were made, but none were successful. The problem seemed to go away initially with keeping inexperienced pilots out of Ka6E's and later with Ka6E's being retired. The fin and rudder could also stall if the glider got violently out of position laterally (usually with a Chipmunk as a tug), but in this case the problem was self correcting as the tug assumed a new heading which put the glider directly behind again.

For water skiing and wakeboarding we use a special non stretch rope so we can’t easily make slack. When you ski with a stretch rope and cut hard once you get to the edge and go to cut back the rope slacks and rips your arms off when it gets tight

Years ago, I was asked to design a dual-tow installation on a Transavia Airtruk (I'm an aeronautical engineer). I used two TOST belly releases, installed upside-down so they would automatically release if either glider got too high. I flew the high glider and investigated out-of-position potential problems - the Transavia Airtruk was an unconventional layout and had two tail assemblies, and a very short fuselage, so the vertical out-of-position did not cause the tug pilot any problem, but the lateral out of position was potentially dangerous. Overall, the experiment was abandoned, because the added risks of a dual tow with any tug were far too great to justify the small cost benefit. It's a fool of an idea, been tried many times - it simply isn't worth the risk.

I wondered at first if this was at Gt. Gransden (where I used to go), but the distinctive ‘pointy lake’ at 02:30 is probably at South Kilworth making it the Husbands Bosworth club (‘Hus Bo’).

Scary times. Have never done a dual tow from any of the three positions, not sure I want to either!

Thanks for sharing.

I remember Bruce Drake’s C182 ZK-FIW being used for a triple tow at an air pageant at Rangiora in the mid-80’s.

well done from the tug pilot for releasing the second it went wrong. perhaps the lower glider was a student of some form as he was in a two seater?

When i did my instructors rating at Matamata we did it from a treble tow. Gliders out on both sides and us underneath. Very cautious during the flight.

Top marks to the tow pilot. I think he knew that low glider was going to cause him trouble.

As I saw the slack rope develop for the low tow glider, I almost spit out my lunch as I involuntarily exclaimed "Woh!"

that pilot was on the button. very good reaction.

good thing the tow-pilot was obviously just waiting for the sh!t to hit the fan and reacted almost instantly :) plus the other glider pilot reacted great too because the upset of the towplane makes it way slower than the glider who's in upper tow and additionally in a higher position (more energy).

Give up the fight against gravity... it always wins in the end! 🙂

I find it mind boggling that NONE of these pilots even seemed to do the most basic research on how to dual tow before putting all their lives at risk!! WTAF!!??

In the video with the correct dual tow, the gliders lined up behind the tow plane while still on the ground. As a result, the tow rope for the glider at the back was under the wing of the glider at the front. This means that if either the glider at the back or the tow plane would have lifted off the ground before the front glider, the cable would have hit the wing and the front glider would have tipped over, possibly doing a ground loop right in front of the glider behind it. Wouldn't it be safer for each glider to keep to the side, like the two gliders in the first video did? And then, only once in the air, would they position themselves at the center?

Thanks for your interesting Videos! Great insights.

Great video. You explain it all very well.

On the topic of "why do a dual tow?", The late, great, Dick Johnson would occasionally do dual tows if he wanted to do a flight test side-by-side comparison between two gliders but did not have 2 towplanes available.

Tank you very much for this video. Very instructive...

Good thing that the glider pilots promptly released the tow rope that was tying them together (after the tow pilot released the rope from the towplane).

The same problem we have at our airfield. We use a microlight as a tug with one glider in tow. The Problem is that the tug has a takeoff-weight of about 420kg with a 700kg glider in tow. In case the glider pilot is not knowing what is expected of him, the tug-pilot is in big trouble. As the tug-pilot I would have released the glider earlier at minute 3:55 for an off-field landing.

They found the rope by calling the power grid company and asking which towns had been blacked out. I can imagine people rightly annoyed by ropes and shackles falling from the sky onto their property. The low glider pilot is not even ready for single tow operations, I wonder who organised this shambles?

Back in the early 70's the tug plane would would fly through Burkes Pass with two gliders behind it heading into the Mackenzie Basin.

The second example vastly different 👍

Many years ago, my only experiences with gliders was in Belgium. We were winched up, caught updrafts and had a marvelous afternoon. I was a passenger with a Belgian colonel flying the glider. This was during my US Army days. Wonder if gliders are still winched up? Thanks for the video.

It looks like Husbands Bosworth in the Midlands. I know the site quite well as I've visited and flown into the site a few times. There may have been an absence of a proper briefing in this case. This is somewhat surprising as I've witnessed dual towing on the site but I personally have never done one.

I don't EVER want to hear about my glider being heavy from our tow pilot again! 😂😂😂😂👉🤡

love the vids

Somewhere I've got a photo of a triple tow (3x K8).

Ah the good ole days where we met in a room or part of the hanger, went over checklists, verified everyone knew what position they would be in, what they should see, and gone over emergency situations and what to do. If on take off x y or z happens cut loose. if on take off, something happens, cut loose and land in these fields here, here or here. once above x feet on climb out it is safe to circle back and attempt landing at the airfield. You know, basic stuff so you are not scrambling in an emergency to figure what to do and where to land and turning to tight, bleeding to much speed, stalling out and crashing trying to be back to the airport when yo don't have the altitude to do that.

Ahh. G'Day Tim! This was a great video well done, Good job Tow Pilot & the high Tow Glider Pilot! Did you start PureTrack?

I’m wondering if a small amount of air brakes on both gliders would be beneficial to the tow -reducing for sure the speed & climbing rate, but- ensuring that there is no brutal tug to the towing airplane and the glider due to slack in the towing-line. Would it be useful ? Has it been tested ?

Duel tow??? I didn’t know that was even a thing!

When i flew in the UK i never did low tows then when i moved to Oz it was always low tows but i had some dual instruction when switching from high to low. So i suspect UK pilots only experience low tows when gliding overseas.

I have done many tows behind a Pawnee in my Glidinhg carreer. At our club, IE. Orient in S.A., we were instructed to always fly in Low Tow position behind the Tug on normal Aerotows. Although I have done many High tow position tows at other clubs which insist on High Tow position. Just a point that occurs to me from viewing the video. The Glider Pilot flying in High Tow position cannot see the Glider below him at any time if they assume an in-line stacked position (I.E Low tow and high tow directly in line behind the Tug.) Nail biting stuff. This double tow or multi-tow idea was pioneered in War time. Looks pretty hairy to me, I certainly would not try it unless I was at War.🙂 Interesting video, thanks Paul

I was wondering what would happen when the tow plane turns to the right. I can't imagine being in a tow on the inside of turn.

Why the higher glider turns to the right side after release the rope? In my opinion it‘s safer to turn to the left, away from the other glider

Even watching the correct one makes me nervous. I would never agree to be a part of that. Either we do a single tow or you can find another pilot.

Not a good watch, I almost couldn't view the whole clip. Having done a few dual tows it is an exercise that needs a good briefing and understanding before getting in the gliders.

That is just unNerving to behold... I really don't know squat from a squash but this video (your video) should have been required viewing during pre-flight - if there was one :O\ Thank you for the "life saving education" if I ever find myself in this situation. Cheers

Look at the bag(?) behind the neck of the pilot when he recovers from the climb. He had to fly zero G. Wow.

Gliding, the only sport where during your first solo you have to also do formation flying. (Unless your first solo is off a winch, as mine was.)

I felt sorry for the Tuggie! The poor guy was applying full right rudder most of that flight! At the end it was full down elevator as well. Then he made the decision to pull the plug… 😲

Well, I did 1100 hours in gliding and a lot of tug flying. Flying the tug can induce a very high frequwncy ring ripple sometimes. Gliding sttarted a career that ended with 18000 flying hours but, It is now the only way to master stck and rudder skill

This is my current home club although the incident happened before I was a member there. That Pawnee isn't based at the club though, we use DHC-1 Chipmunks. Wonder whether this was meant to be a dual retrieve following an outlanding?

have never seen/heard of a dual tow, interesting. why doesn't the tow pilot radio the gliders to get in line? thanks for sharing.

I'm not a pilot, yet, but I find it hard to believe that the cost savings of a dual-tow is worth the potential of something going really wrong. The lower sailplane that had the rope wrapping around the wing was really lucky that it didn't go worse than it did. I continue to wonder why someone has not designed a tow rope system that lets the tow pilot release the tow rope at the sailplane so there would never be a time when an emergency tow rope release by the tow pilot would leave the sailplane with a rope hanging from it's nose.

I’d love to hear the radio comms.

So if the towplane releases, which way should each glider go? Ordinarily (at least in the US), an individual glider should turn right, and the plane left. With two gliders, both going right seems somewhat risky. Should the high tow go up and right, and the low down and right? Watching that rope wrap around the wing did not make me feel good.

Never done this but just by watching it I would immediately felt it was wrong to be in that spot being dragged like that... 😬 everything you do should always feel natural and this would make me ask if I'm really suppose to be in that spot.

Geezz. I could pilot that second glider better than that, and I only fly sims. What was he thinking?

Is this a case of not having a clear preflight briefing on the procedures?

Thanks for the video and commentary. Got to love non sailplane pilots making comments regarding safety/etc. Wait till they see a 4 way tow with each glider pilot boxing a corner of the wake. Perhaps that is what the guy in low right position was trying to do but traded too much potential energy for speed/and or hit a thermal. Not optimal but a non-event excepting the guy in 1st tow position broke right when he should have broken left on release.

I didn’t know this was a thing. Interesting.

Pretty certain the wing of the glider on the short rope struck the ground on the take off roll too. I thought SOP was to abort the take off if that happened.