The tractor sank while ploughing an ice skating route in an urban archipelago area in Helsinki.
I’m guessing @BeachAV8R is right re training opportunity, but I also would say that the eyesore, the ridicule and the noise from complaining environmental groups etc. would not have been insignificant if the tractor was left there - basically it’s in the middle of Helsinki suburbia, surrounded by apartment buildings. It’s not really acceptable in Finland to leave something “untidy” like that on a public place - there would be hell to pay.
A lot of those water areas are very shallow too, so getting a big enough crane boat there come summer might not have been an option.
I’ll defer to you then. My company has a couple of smaller tractors we use as aircraft tugs, and I know the John Deere was a little over $20k, and looked to be about half that size.
I’m not an expert though, by choice. Grew up on a farm, and decided I wanted as little to do with farming and tractors as I could!
That would be my 1st question as well. It took considerable skill. But it was not a tow by any definition. He maybe got 30lbs of borrowed thrust for a few seconds. Had the rope wrapped around his arm, well, how do you say “Hold my beer while I lose my arm” in German?
Good question. It depends on the glider of course.
I think I used to know a rule of thumb. Had to do with the glider’s weight IIRC. Right now I can only guess (will look it up tomorrow). A few hundred kg of force (yes I know I should use Newtons) surely.
I tow rope must be able to handle between 80% and 200% of the weight of the glider it is towing. If the rope is capable of more than 200% then a weak link must be installed. The human hand however is probably capable of a grip that’s, errr, let’s say a little less than the weight of the glider. I believe we can call the guy in the video the, ahem, “weak link”. Did you see that?
To put this into perspective:
Even if we use a fairly light glider like an LS4 we are talking about 240kg of weight.
Even an SG-38 (which can barely be called a plane to be honest) is 100kg.
So if we use a low number (80% of the glider’s weight + 70kg pilot) we are talking about holding 136kg. In one hand. Doesn’t sound like a great idea.
Interesting spotting of Stratolaunch. I wonder if it will ever fly again. Kind of a boondoggle project I guess at this point. I can’t imagine what it costs to keep that hangar cooled (if at all).
