I have received a lot of request for info on the Tugs we will be using for our event so I am posting to the group. Here is info on two of the tugs that will be at our event. At this time I do not have info on the third one.
First off this is not a cheap endeavor.
Brian Chan is currently building a 1/4 scale Wilga using a monster motor provided by Steve Nue that will turn a 27 inch prop pulling over 100amps using 12s4p thunder power batteries. It should have no problem pulling up a 30 pound glider at a cost of around $3,500 or so.
My Tug is a Hanger 9 1/4 scale Super Cub ARF ( No longer Avalible) that easily pulls up my brothers 20 pound very draggy scale gliders. I'm using an Axi 5330/24 Spinning a 22/12 prop with a Jetti 90 amp controller. Batteries are Thunder Power. I use 3 packs of 3s4p wired in series giving me 8000ma. I do this for several reasons. 1. It
is much easier to fit and balance the plane with three packs then one or two. 2. I can easily use the packs in other planes of various sizes so they are not just siting around when we are not aero-towing. But the real advantage is I have 3 Astro Flight chargers, I can charge all three batteries at once at 6 amps. It only takes about an hour to have all three of them ready to go again. So by having two sets of 3 packs... Yep.. 6 batteries total. You can tow all day without interruption with this set up.
The only Mods I made to the Super Cub were using the largest Balloon tires I could find and for safety reason I did the following.
I cut the counter balance part of the rudder off and fixed it in place to prevent the tow line from snagging.
I might of gone a little overboard with the tow line release, I installed a HS-6985 HB digital servo with
172oz of torque on a 2 to1 bell-crank system so in affect I have 344oz of pulling power on the pin.
I lost my first tug to what I believe was a receiver battery coming loose while doing some acrobatics. So on my latest one I installed a duel 5 cell flight pack system with separate on-off switches and connections to the receiver, and I don't do acrobatics any more :-)
I will be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Sincerely
Craig
