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From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Gettin’ Hitched
Saying ‘I Do’ to DIY aircraft towing.
Left Brain = logic, language, math. Right Brain = art, music, intuition, love. How to engage both when towing an airplane.
28 • TWIN & TURBINE February 2019
What makes an airplane fly? Airspeed and money, right? Regulations, physicals, training, financing, maintenance, insur- ance, fuel, cleaning and towing can merely be a means to our end – that of achieving flight. But the airspeed and money cliché along with our clinical persona may deprive us of something more. What if we allow the right side of our brain to have a seat in the towing vehicle before we slide into the left seat of the airplane? For those that fall into the “someone else does that for me” category, consider this my Valentine proposal to say ‘I do’ to do-it-yourself towing.
How Do I Tow Thee
How do I tow thee, let me count the ways:
I tow thee to the depth and breadth my tug may reach, after halting for the night; at the end of soaring,
after an inspiring flight.
I tow thee with smoothness, and with gentle might; by sun or moonlight. Towing thee with care,
yon painted lines show me where.
I tow thee fearful of hangar rash; which I must not commit. Yet I tow thee merrily; with grand smiles and grins –
to which I admit.
I tow thee with the breath and tears of all my life.
And, if God does so allow to wit: promise to tow thee lovingly I do, with each towing experience, I humbly accrue.
I tow thee tenderly, with childhood dreams that I keep, gliding smoothly on the ramp, with admiration, love and a Jeep.
An Elevated Fraternity
Readers have called this column “quirky and eccentric yet insightfully eclectic.” Those are atypically esoteric words to come from left-brain aviators. But T &T readers rise from
a philosophically elevated fraternity of owner-operators.
We can problem solve and make decisions as we operate an airplane, practice, firm or corporation with the left side of our brain, and then side-step to the parallel, right side with equal intensity as we embrace the sensory-symphonies of love, life, our livelihood and flying. When writing for such a fraternity, especially about a topic as potentially utilitarian and boring as towing an airplane, you’d best do it in a unique, perhaps quirky fashion; something to engage both sides of the brain. Well, a story about aircraft towing that begins with an emotionally laden anthropomorphic sonnet? That’s a quirky, eccentric and insightfully eclectic approach to towing – and certainly unique. After all, we’re only moving an airplane from place to place. How difficult can it be and what else
is there to know? What else indeed grasshopper. There are challenges and threats that our left brain must negotiate if we are to indulge our right brain’s passionate perspective on the potentially problematic procedure.
Neither Snow nor Rain
The Duke is the first aircraft I’ve owned that could not be moved in and out of a hangar manually by one person. Initially, I had an FBO accomplish the towing. After moving from Arizona to Michi- gan, I needed a way to tow the Duke by myself in an environment where tow-it-yourself inhibitors are plentiful. But neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor upslope into the hangar should stop me from the swift completion of the appointed tow. Scott Johnson is a local pilot in our Winter Wonderland of slip- periness and owns both an award-winning C-180 and a welding shop. And after 20-plus years, he has plenty of experience with creative metalworking. Scott manufactured an extra-long tow bar (so that I could see the towing limits on the nose strut—more on this in a bit) to use with a trailer hitch that was welded to the front frame of my 4WD Ford Explorer. When I recently replaced the Ford with a Jeep, its bumper, grill and the shielded, rock-crawling underside didn’t facilitate the same type of trailer hitch adapta- tion. There are, however, two red towing hooks that presented an opportunity for Scott’s creativity. This time he manufactured an adapter to fit over the Jeep’s hooks that included a trailer hitch ball. Your own towing setup may necessitate similar creativity, but whatever method you devise, the mechanical and procedural considerations for safe DIY towing will be similar.
Due to the threat of hangar rash, liability and (lack of) driver ability, most shared, FBO and community hangars require that only those trained in the nuances of towing conduct the maneuver. Moving the plane ourselves is therefore predicated on us having our own hangar, a means of towing and possessing trailering skills. In addition to having the skill to tow both forward and backward, our tow-vehicle must have the power, torque, traction and tow bar attachments to manage the task. Pilots tow their aircraft using a wide variety of machinery including tugs large and small, electric and gas; they use cars, trucks, farm tractors, four-wheelers and riding lawn mowers. Initially, I tried several types of walk-along towing machines and a riding mower, but traction was inadequate for the snowy incline into the hangar. I settled on the Explorer and now a Jeep. Towing a single, a cabin-class twin, Citation, GV and a 787 all require a different tug, attachments and a different skill set. The larger our aero- space vehicle, the more difficult these personal and equipment parameters are to achieve.