June Aerotowing

It has been a stormy, wet spring and late summer in Colorado, but even with the weather I was able to get out towing a few times, plus nab a flight off Lookout. Aerotowing is a new skill, so I've tried to change only one thing at time. My progress since getting my rating has been, towing at altitude in Colorado on Tim's Sport 2, towing the Fusion in smooth air, towing the Fusion in Mid-day conditions. Next I'll ditch the keel-mounted release and should be able to tow with the best of them. Here's a short Hero Cam clip of my tows. My computer is slowly dying and won't run Adobe Premier Pro so I had to use Windows Movive Maker (ugh).



The first towing session this month was my first time towing the Fusion. Jim, JT, Tim, Sparky, Rick, BJ and a few others met at Farm Flight on a foggy Sunday morning. It was still overcast when I set up, but the sun was burning off the clouds quickly. When the holes were big enough to get on top Tim fired up the tug and took a test flight. JT was first to tow up, I cued up next. The fusion was a hand full on the first tow, but it was because I didn't have enough VG. I pulled on just over a 3rd VG on the second tow and it settled down considerably. The morning air was bliss and smooth as glass. The plains were lush with green grass from all the rain, while the Rockies to the west were still capped with snow. On the third tow I dropped the Hero Cam on a dangle mount JT lent me. One string broke immediately sending it spinning. I re-tied it and dropped it again for a set of wing overs. It oscillated quite a bit, but worked. I'm envisioning an airfoil shape with vertical stabilizers for the next mount to smooth things out.

Overcast Skies in the Morning



Tim Test Flying the Dragonfly



JT's Tandem





My First Tow on the Fusion









Sparky Towing









Rick Towing





BJ Towing









Tim Landing



Sparky Landing





Me Landing
(right wing got popped in the flare, but I saved it)







The second towing session was last week. I worked in the morning and didn't make it there until mid afternoon. The crew was mostly the same as before, along with Fred and Craig who visiting from Arizona. I took my time setting up, waiting for the lift to turn on. There was line of over development to the south, but nothing but blue skies above Farm Flight. Fred towed up first in his ATOS, followed by JY and BJ in their rigid wings. Dan in his U2 and I were the only flex wings to tow up that afternoon. The fusion was a hand full in the slightly turbulent air. I had a 3rd VG on, but it wasn't enough. Down low the air was filled with constant ups and downs, but when I pinned off I there wasn't much lift to be found. I found a disorganized thermal just downwind of some dark, muddy cow corrals. I worked to maximize any core I could find and soon climbed into nice organized lift. JY was thermaling with a hawk above me and we were soon joined by Tim in the Tug and BJ from below. I leveled off just below 8000 feet to stay out of DIA's class B airspace and got out my camera. I took some pics of BJ and he climbed up through me and we went off on glide.

Waiting for it to Turn On



BJ Ready to Go Far



Fred Towing



JY Towing



BJ Towing



Thermaling with Tim in the Dragonfly







Thermaling with BJ
(his pics show me)













The wrinkly and battered fusion lost hundreds of feet on glide compared to BJ's clean ATOS. After about a mile he hit a bump and turned above me, but it didn't look very good so I pressed on (and down) towards another big corral to the north. It was north of the class B so I could climb high if I found lift. Above and downwind of the corral there was nothing but broken bumps. I could see hawks turning below, but nothing was strong enough to punch through a weak inversion at about 7000 feet. I hung out slowly loosing altitude until I was down to about 6500 feet and needed to head back towards the field. It was one of those light days where the thermals were few and far between. I explored a potential thermal triggers on the way, but found nothing. I reached the field with enough altitude for a perfect base entry, then milked my final enough to clear a few fence poles and touch down right on the runway.

Farm Flight from the Air



BJ and JY joined up and flew all the way to Lions and Boulder respectively. I was kicking myself for not hanging with BJ, but don't think I would have been able to stay with him on his rigid. Most likely I would have sunk out a few miles from the field and had to endure a hot, boring walk back on desolate dirt roads. I was happy with the flight and my thermal skills got a good polishing, hopefully next time the conditions will be better and I'll make it up and out of Farm Flight.