View source for Howto:Do aerotow over the net

[[File:Aerotowready.png|Aerotow]]

With [[FlightGear]] 1.0 and later, you can practice '''aerotowing over the net''' using the [[Howto: Multiplayer|multiplayer]] system. At this time, only few towplanes and gliders are capable of participating in MP aerotows. These are:

'''Towplanes'''
* [[De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver|Beaver]] (dhc2W)
* [[Piper J3 Cub|J3]] (j3cub) 
* [[Mainair Flash 2 Alpha]] (flash2a)
* [[Rallye-MS893E]] (rallye-MS893 )


'''Gliders'''

* [[airwaveXtreme150]] (hang glider)
* [[ASK-13 sailplane|ASK13]]
* [[Schleicher ASK 21 Glider|ASK21]]
* [[Schleicher ASW 20|ASW20]]
* [[SZD-9bis Bocian-1E|Bocian]]
* [[Glaser-Dirks_DG-101G|DG-101G]]


The following example uses the J3 and the Bocian, though if you are new to aerotowing use the Beaver; it's much easier due to tow with.

[[File:aerotow2.jpg]]

Taxi the J3 within 60m to the Bocian. The Bocian pilot has to press {{key press|Ctrl}}+{{key press|O}} (Shift+o). Both pilots should see a radio message that they are connected to each other, then the J3 pilot can taxi. Until we have the instrumentation designed that is capable of displaying the distance between the two aircraft, the J3 pilot should watch <tt>/sim/hitches/aerotow/tow/dist</tt> and <tt>/sim/hitches/aerotow/tow/dist-time-lag-corrected</tt> in the property browser. Be very slow if the dist gets near 60m, the length of the tow. Increase the speed slowly. Both pilots should try to lift off gently - the glider pilot should be particularly careful not to lift the tail of the towplane. Either pilot can release the tow by pressing {{key press|Shift|O}} (Shift+o).

[[File:aerotow.jpg]]

If you are not using a local network connection, both pilots should log in on the same server to minimize the time lag. The time lag will still rather large. Therefore <tt>/sim/hitches/aerotow/tow/dist</tt> and <tt>/sim/hitches/aerotow/tow/dist-time-lag-corrected</tt> differ significantly (the second value is the estimated dist, the other pilot is seeing right now).

== Related content ==
* [[Howto:Setup winch and aerotowing for JSBSim-aircraft]]
* [[Soaring]]

[[Category:Howto|Do aerotow over the net]]