I felt a bit nervous about flying the wing at a new airport.  I had many flights here and knew all of the "off field" landing sites if needed. We had never flown the Wing off of grass.  I knew Andrew, the tow pilot, and felt conformable with him.  Dave I trusted completely so it turns out just to be my own nerves, so let's Fly.

During this series of flights I wanted to follow my test program and do a little air to air photos of the wing.  I do very complete preflight checks on the Wing prior to a tow.  Then my brother goes after me to double-check what I check.  I have developed a back up release to the dual tow hooks under the wing.  If one or both do not release, I can reach across my body with each hand and push backward on the release connection from inside the cockpit.  I have never done this in flight but it is nice to know you have a backup to release problems.

You can see the tow harness here with attachments under the wing at the C.G.  This gives a very smooth and nice tow.  There is no pitch change at release at all.  You do need to be diligent during initial ground tow.  With this tow harness position you need to get the skid off the ground slightly and balance the Wing on the main gear until just over 35-mph.  At this point the wing will move to ground effect quickly and you can then proceed with a nice tow.  If you ask the wing to leave the ground early it will and you will find yourself doing the PIO dance until you catch it.  This is not a bad trait, just one that take a bit of time to get used to.   The best way to learn this is during the initial auto tows.

We used the same 300-ft towrope we used in the initial test flights.  This gave me a smooth tow on the initial flights and proved to be the best choice here as well.  As time goes on I will reduce the tow length as I get a higher comfort level with the Wing.    She is ready I’m sure,  I’m not yet!

The cockpit layout is simple.    Altimeter on the left next to the trim lever.  You can see the spoiler handle in the left of the picture.  Radio connections are under the spoiler handle.   We changed this when the Wing was repainted.  The radio is on the right side now.   The center has the helicopter air speed indicator.  I like this since I can see the airspeed all the way down to stop.  Next to it is my vario.   Compass on top and the tow release knob just under that.  We now have that painted yellow.   A 760 Narco radio is in the center. This is powered internally and can be powered with an external battery for 8-hr life if needed.  Boy would I love an 8-hr flight!

We have a walking harness about 15 ft long that we use to pull the wing into takeoff position.  One person can do this.   The wing-walking wheel was my brother’s idea after attending the Nationals in Ulvalde and watching all the pros.  Nice addition.  

On tow from the grass.  No problems.   It was just like the L-13 but a bit quicker.  The tow behind the L-19 was very smooth.   It had a bit more punch than the Super Cub.  These are photos taken from the L-19 by Chris Hinckley and used in the video on the Marske Flying Wing.