Towing with a Decathlon

[BravoRomeo]

Hiya all,

I´m considering, in fact, seriously considering... well... I´m immersed in the proccess of buying a Decathlon (the one with 150 HP). I just love Citabrias, their handle, the stick and rudder thing, the light aerobatics they are capable of, you know, Citabrias. But then:

I may have some different uses for it, but just MAY have it. What I actually do have is towing jobs, but if the old owner is selling it is because he couldn´t make a tow plane of it, legally speaking. His country´s aviation administration didn´t find any other 150HP Decathlon towing around, so they just said: "You can´t". Of course, if I wanna buy it is because I like Citabrias, but if I CAN buy it is because it can work. Here is where the question comes: Does any of you out there know of its legallity? And once I´m talking, does any of you know about its capability doing so? I know a 7GCBC or a 8GCBC would fit that job much better, but the only one for sale that I´ve been able to find (I don´t live in the USA where you can find LOTS of them) was this.

Any help will be WELCOME!!!

Thanks!!

[bluesideup]

If you mean banner towing I've seen many Citabrias doing that, but I don't know which engine they have. If your talking about towing gliders the answer is, I've never seen it done with 150 hp.

[BravoRomeo]

Thanks,

I´ve been searching myself deeper into this. I need the plane´s POH to have the towing operation described into it, and the Decathlon´s (8KCAB) POH doesn´t. The installation of a tow hook is approved and the airplane will be airworthy with it, but then, if I want to use that hook... I CAN´T!!

I can do it with the other models, 7GCBC, 7GCAA and 8GCBC (not sure about the 7ECA, but it´s 115HP, so I don´t care ) as there is a part in their respective POH´s saying how one should tow with them, but unfortunatelly there are not many around Europe to choose from... in fact, two talking about the actual Europe and 4 if we consider Turkey as part of the continent.

Regarding the banners/gliders towing, I´m doing both, being the banners the main business. I´ve seen a 7GCBC (150HP) towing gliders for years, but I´ve no idea if they were performing an overhaul every 2 hours on it

Thanks again, and if anybody knows of a Decathlon´s POH talking about towing anything, you can make a happy boy of me!!!!!!!

Thanks once again.