Surface towing for teaching

[MikeLake]

I've foot launched two point in nil wind many times but it's not that comfortable. Certainly I would have the winch set to snatch me off the ground as soon as possible. Any trace of a tail wind and I would abort.

As Tad has said the top leg position is not that critical (within reason).
I don't think the bridle setup had any bearing on PJ's face plant. Put simply no airspeed = no fly.
Sounds like an awesome tow team.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://pjwings.blogspot.com/
Wings

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/02 08:04

My Life is a Cliche

Have you ever felt like your life is a cliche? I don't often, but Sunday afternoon I fell head first into a couple of notable hang gliding cliches. The end result comes down to several fractures in my nose, a moderately cool looking black eye, a healthy slice of humble pie, and some lessons I'll not soon forget.

It was Sunday. The first day of the Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge.

First days of the Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenges are seeming to be a bit problematic. Maybe you should skip them.

Other than that fact it was unremarkable. We decided it would be a good day to get a sled run or two in. Mitch...

Thank you, God, for the second time in two days in a matter pertaining to Quest Air staff.

...decided to set up his electric scooter tow rig in the LZ to help people get familiar with the technology before his landing clinic scheduled for later in the week.

Guess you're nice and familiar with the technology now, Paul.

I flew... it was nice. Contrary to expectations I didn't have a stone cold sledder but was able to stretch it out for an extra five minutes in a little thermal over the LZ. Top it off with a very nice landing and I was feeling good.

Should've left it at that.

I walked up to where Mitch...

BIG mistake.

...was running tows from and watched what was going on.

Should've done some background on him first.

A friend was about to tow up using an aerotow dolly.

Those things make towing A LOT safer. Sometimes the difference between even a wobbly cart and foot launch is life and death.

His tow went well and was unremarkable.

Sounds routine.

Juan Saa

If you believe adventure is dangerous, then try routine... It's lethal!

Where's the fun in that?

He pinned off over the middle of the LZ...

He'd almost hafta be to have much success with whatever piece of crap he was using for a release.

...and that's when it started to go weird. I'm not here to tell his story...

C'mon Paul. We're not gonna get this data from USHGA.

...but suffice it to say that he ended his flight with a less than beautiful landing...

Wild guess... FOOT landing attempt?

I imagine some stitches were needed. After the dust cleared Mitch stepped up and asked "Who's next?" Enter cliche #1

There are Old Pilots, and Bold Pilots, but Few who are Both.

I didn't hesitate to step forward. After all, I certainly wasn't going to do what that last guy did...

What the last guy did was totally irrelevant to the tow.

...and I have wanted to try this for a long time. Never mind that the wind is alternating between calm and lightly tailing... never mind that I've never done a static...

Stationary winch.

...tow before. After all, I've seen this on YouTube, how hard can it be?

Watch some of the unhooked launch videos - free flight and tow.

I rigged up my...

...piece o' crap Quallaby...

...tow release and stepped into position. We decided to try a foot launch.

- WE?
- WHY? You had a fuckin' AT dolly right there.

I have been eager to give this a go ever since I first learned about it. I was really looking forward to the landing clinic and I hoped to get a jump on the game by starting today.

You've never needed to do a goddam standup landing in your life - and never will.

Mitch...

The...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/17 15:41:42

The operator himself is an expert...

..."expert".

...gave me a ground school lesson on how it's done.

- Pity he didn't give you a ground school lesson on how it SHOULD be done.

- You really should attend one of his seminars...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1LbRj-NN9U


...on standard aerotow weak link success recovery sometime. He can help you delude yourself into thinking that you can safely handle those as well.

He explained the differences between Static Tow launches...

- If he knew what the hell he was talking about he'd know that scooter isn't static.
- As far as the actual launch is concerned, it doesn't matter whether it's static, stationary winch, or aero.

...and mountain launches. I understood what he was telling me. Launching is all about Angle of Attack. The theory is always the same, however the implementation differs. I am ready... I shout "GO! GO! GO!".

What would be the downside of doing a double lift and tug as you're go signal?

Mitch echoes my shout and starts pulling the line.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skysailingtowing/message/6406
Hook in failure

Luis Filipe Barradas - 2007/12/16 03:12:38 UTC

I experienced the same accident, but came out only with a broken wrist.

Not accounting for the reasons that allowed me to launch without hooking up...

That's what happened:

Double release (bridle under/over bar) and hydraulic winch, foot launch, hands immediately on the bar, and going up fast, at about 45 degrees angle. The first reaction is to tight the grip, not to release; by the time you blink, you are at twenty-five feet.

One hand out of the bar, and released; could not get the hand back to the bar. Glider banking now to the left. Released the grip of my left hand, on purpose, and fell.

There was not much time for the "what if". Waiting for the 'abort' would take me much higher; I'm not saying that it was the best decision, but it was the one, at that time.

Do not try this at home.

P.S. Yes Tad, you got the translation right; it would never happens if I was using the dolly to take off.

I run. I run some more. Still running. Just as the glider starts to lift off my shoulders I feel the line tension increase and it's as if the hand of God grabbed my by the chest and pulled me through the control frame. Enter cliche #2

Never Land On Your Face.

My feet struggle to keep pace but I just can't run that fast. I begin to fall forward... and that's when time slowed down. As I fell the base bar touched earth, dug in, and the power whack commenced. I watched the nose of the glider come down in front of me like a white curtain. It seemed to take about 4 seconds for it to fill my vision. During that time I watched my left hand come in front of me to break my fall. I watched the ground slowly swing up to meet my face. I flinched away and felt my helmet hit the dirt. I actually had enough time to think "Oh, that wasn't bad at all". I thought the crash was over... I honestly did. Then my face hit the dirt and the weight and momentum of my body behind it squashed my right eye socket into the ground.

We've covered this already.

Then time returned to its ordinary pace. I felt fine. I didn't think I was hurt at all. I knew that my spine and neck were fine... it all happened so slow I didn't even question it. I also knew that I was going to have a heck of a bruise on my right eye. I raised an arm to signal to the crew that I was OK...

You weren't.

...and began to get up. James, Mitch, and Ollie showed up right about then and told me to just sit still. Right about that same time blood started gushing out my nose... Oh... bugger.

Angels were with me.

If the angels were worth shit they'd have done the ounce of prevention thing.

In particular, Marie the Amazing. She brought me a towel. She sat and made chitchat while blood streamed out of my face. As the background noise of people packing up droned on I sat in a surreal space grounded by Marie's conversation and the occasional reassurance of TheJames Dean. Cliche #3... this time a good one:

The Hang Gliding Community is Awesome.

Fuck The Hang Gliding Community.

Many, many thanks to everyone who helped me out, tried to make me feel better, cleaned up my blood, broke down my glider, brought me ice, and generally took the time to make my life better during a down moment.

Those are all the motherfuckers who push the foot launches and landings and release systems that stink on ice that made this pooch screw possible.

So what happened? Everyone I've spoke to has had an opinion.

No shit.

This is the nature of pilots to dissect an event... try and glean any tiny bit of truth from it that can be had. We all live with our choice to pursue this sport.

Not all of us get the choice.

It is dangerous.

Try really doing something to get the safety level up to something sane.

I think it makes us feel better to try and understand 'what went wrong'...

We know what's going wrong. None of this is rocket science.

...when somebody screws up because it will, hopefully, prevent the same thing from happening to us.

People like Doug Hildreth work pretty hard to prevent the same thing from happening to other people.

So here's my technical analysis. I had my angle of attack too low. I would have been flying sooner if I had gotten the nose up a little and when Mitch had fed the last bit of juice I would have flown smoothly away from the hill. I believe that three years of mountain launch experience has conditioned me to keep my nose down... always keep it down.

I can remember a couple of foot launch tows I made when I went with my instinct to pull in when I got airborne. The first one I was trying to kite from a payout winch in high wind, the second I was trying to static tow. Ended up landing immediately after takeoff on the first and forcing the driver to crank up the speed and getting a low tow on the second.

If it starts to go bad get the nose down even more!!

Even coming off a ramp or slope that's not all that valid. It can go bad cause you're diving down into gradient, wind shadow, trash from treetops...

It didn't help that I was using a release configured for aerotow, designed to assist with keeping the nose down on those fast tows.

Didn't hurt that much either.

Nor did it help that we were towing downhill which added further to the forces pulling the nose down.

Bullshit.

Your tow angle wasn't quite as flat as aero and WAY flatter than platform. ANY tow angle better than straight down results in the glider pitching up - assuming no interference with the basetube and a trim point (on the keel) not ridiculously forward. And the manufacturer specified trim point for your Sport 2 is:

On keel, at back of bottom surface zipper

However there's a much more important lesson to walk away with. When learning a new skill, approach it cautiously, and ease into it with an incremental progression. I was attempting to launch using a method I had never tried before.

Still haven't heard what the thinking was behind rejecting the dolly.

The wind was working against us.

- Or at least not working for you.

- Glad to hear you saying "US". There are two people making decisions about and exercising control over the glider and damn near always two people responsible when something goes seriously wrong - as was the case here.

The field was crowded and smaller than ideal.

All fields are smaller than ideal.

I was flying my intermediate level glider.

Which flies and climbs more efficiently than your Falcon. I don't think that was a significant issue.

I was brimming with confidence.

Always a bad idea in aviation. Pessimists win this game hands down.

In retrospect, I only gave these factors a glancing consideration. I was a fool! It's humiliating. I don't mind making a technical error... hey we all do sometimes. A gross and obvious lapse in judgement is something I have difficulty accepting about myself.

Welcome to humanity.

These kinds of mistakes have serious consequences in the world of aviation.

So that's my story.

So where do I go to read Mitch's story? He owes you and everybody else one bigtime.

Time to reassess. Time to dial down the brashness and remember cliche #4:

You Will Be Able To Fly For The Rest Of Your Life. Make Sure It's A Long One.

You don't have to end your life to leave yourself in bad enough shape not to be able to fly again. Talk to John Woiwode sometime.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face
Paul Edwards - 2012/10/17 15:41:42 UTC

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

JedZeppelin - 2012/10/17 16:17:12 UTC
Montana

theres probably going to be several jump in disagreeing, but sounds like to me the fact that you ran what sounds like 35 yards with Grapvine grip all the way till the whack is the number one problem.

Sounds to me like the fact that he ran PERIOD was the number one problem.

I've done a fair amount of static towing behind a car (I much prefer payout winches and platform launch)...

So does anyone else with half a brain or better. (Peter Birren - by way of example - is a big foot launch static fan because, according to Donnell's Skyting Theory, there's no safety advantage to rolling launches and platform launches are inherently dangerous because there's a rapid transition to flight and the glider starts out on a short effective towline which allows the relative positions of the glider and tow vehicle to change significantly and quickly.)

...but anyways you cant run very fast on flat ground in a grapevine grip, its only for the initial 3 to 5 steps for the added leverage to keep wings level until the wing can lift off your shoulders then you switch grip and run your ass off while flying the glider with you feet on ground running.

OR... Just get on a fuckin' dolly and take off just like everyone in REAL aviation does. Then we can all focus a lot more on flying instead of listening to a lot of tedious grapevine/bottle grip discussions.

Try it without the winch, just run your glider on flat ground,
Try first Grapevine all the way, run as fast as you can grapevine 10 steps in you will be having far more touble controling the glider than if you had switched grips, (different story on a steep mountain launch but we are talking flat ground.
Now run it again and get the wing flying off your shoulders as fast as possible and switch to bottle grip as soon as its lifting off your shoulders, now see how much faster you can run and how much better pitch control your gonna have with the glider flying rather than riding on your shoulders forever.

And then get on a dolly for a safe tow launch.

And I would reccommend before you attempted scooter tow footlaunch for first time you should have done 5 or 6 practice runs with your glider, practicing smooth grip switch, keeping wings level thru practice run and quickly getting the glider off your shoulders and flying.
That would have made all the difference in the world...

I'm not hearing the justification for foot launching.

Paul Hurless - 2012/10/17 16:33:40 UTC
Reno

All the things you listed fall under that same cause - Complacency.

Yeah, he knows that now.

Every single one of them should have made you stop and rethink what you were doing.

Telling him this serves what purpose?

It is good to see that you learned that lesson without having it end up much worse.

It WAS much worse. That was a pretty serious injury.

It's all too easy to forget that flying is still serious business even when we are just having fun with it.

He didn't get hurt flying. He got hurt NOT flying. We know the safest ways to get people into and back out of the air most safely. How 'bout we start getting them implemented on as wide a scale as possible?

Running into the edges of the air hurts.

Diev Hart - 2012/10/17 16:52:03 UTC
Santa Cruz, California

I am sad to hear that the tow operator didn't catch any of this....including your first time....and the aero tow setup....And that experienced ST pilots were even there and didn't speak up....Come on people, PLEASE speak up if you ever see anything that looks....different....
Sad....but glad your somewhat ok.

And what were you doing in first grade while all the other kids were studying punctuation?

Fred Wilson - 2012/10/17 16:52:47 UTC
Vernon, British Columbia

On one of my first scooter tows in OZ the instructor deliberately cut the power at a safe height to test my reactions to landing with a slack rope in the way.
It too was a full face plant. (Info overload... I just froze at the controls.)
The nose wires pinned my head and shoulders under the nose plate.

Sure is a good thing that he did it at a safe height. (That continent has even more total assholes per capita than this one does.)

If I had been in water or dust I would have drowned or suffocated. I could not move an inch.

Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974

"A bad flyer won't hurt a pin man but a bad pin man can kill a flyer." - Bill Bennett
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson

Wills Wing / Blue Sky / Steve Wendt / Ryan Voight Productions - 2007/03

NEVER CUT THE POWER...



Reduce Gradually
Increase Gradually

Great training for learning how to react to a Rooney Link increasing the safety of the towing operation. (If you snap off the hook part of a hook knife it's pretty easy to use it to sever a carotid artery.)

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

Tim Dyer - 2012/10/17 16:52:53 UTC
Las Vegas

# 4 was the whole problem. IMO the tow operator should have stopped you with an aerotow setup.

Right. If he had just used a Koch two stage it would've been fine taking a chance on foot launching with placebo wheels in a tailwind.

James Komarniski - 2012/10/17 17:23:52 UTC
Manitoba

Does anyone have pics or videos of any of the releases on a harness they used for scooter towing at Henson's Gap?
We use the Koch 2 setup for our stationary towing which works well for us.

How well does it work for foot launching in a tailwind on a surface which will eat the wheels in use?

Just curious to see what else is out there.

Look around. You can find pretty much any useless piece of crap you can imagine.

CAL - 2012/10/17 18:02:52 UTC
Ogden

i learned a lot from your post...

And I learned SO much from the accounts of Bille Floyd and Martin Apopot about what can happen when people at both ends of the rope consider USHGA's regulation requiring hook-in checks just prior to launch optional and of no importance.

when i was learning in California with mission soaring center, my instructor said the lessons would go much faster if i was towed, i let him know in utah i would only be foot launching so i would much rather learn and practice what i would be doing after lessons...

And when I learned I just practiced wide long approaches to 'cause I planned to never land in a field tighter than the Lookout LZ. (Always a great idea to limit your range of experience in this sport.)

...after words i have learned that there are a lot of awesome places such as Jackson hole Wyoming where you can tow up, catch thermals and fly above the Tetons,

this is what i have learned form Pauls thread, i am sticking to foot launches, Paul is a very smart pilot ! i could see myself doing the same thing

But no fuckin' WAY you'd be stupid enough to do anything like Eric Thorstenson did on 2012/07/04 trying to get airborne from Chelan Butte.

desbi001 - 2012/09/30

The generosity from our friends and family has been astounding. The money raised will go toward helping to buy a wheel chair accessible van for Eric. He will ride as a passenger at first but the van will allow for modifications that will allow him to drive HIMSELF.

So, in summary a lot to work on and a lot to figure out. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Oh and, by the way, two days ago Eric moved his left fourth toe!

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

JedZeppelin - 2012/10/17 18:44:01 UTC

hey Paul,

I didnt know there was a scooter operation going at Hensens or anywhere else in the area,,, so who does the scooter belong to? TTT?

Nah. Mitch Shipley - Quest Air. But this is hang gliding and we tend only to post identities of in-crowd people when we're talking about and showing everybody what great guys they are.

Who do you contact to get some scooter towing at Hensens or somewhere in the area?

To get a quality session like that? What's it matter?

Do you know Julie who flies Lookout? her and I might like some Scooter tow for landing practice...

Gawd I'd love to have complete records of all the crashes, injuries, cripplings, and killings attributable to foot landing practice and all the landings which have required people to stop on their feet in which they were able to pull them off.

How high can they get off scooter tow in Hensens Feild?

How high do people NEED to get to practice foot landings?

And also glad you walked away from that with only minor injuries...

Scraped knees and elbows are minor injuries. Paul's injuries weren't MINOR.

...sound like it could have easily been more painfull.

It WAS more painful. He absorbed about all the energy there was to absorb with his face - the glider hardly absorbed any.

You listed all mistakes very well, but I do think it was remaining in Grapevine grip so long that sealed your fate of not being able to run fast enough long enough to get airborne.

Yeah, let's have a discussion about the best way to foot launch tow with a tailwind without effective wheels and the dolly you've decided to leave parked next to the winch for the next guy.

The flat ground practice runs would have made a big difference had you done that before tow.

Definitely. NO FREAKIN' WAY he'd have done a face plant in a tailwind after a few practice runs.

Tim Dyer - 2012/10/17 21:57:07 UTC

Grip was not the issue.It was the aerotow setup. I dont think Usain Bolt could run fast enough to launch with the keel attachment.

Fuck the grip AND the keel attachment.

Get the long HG bridle from mojos, run it through the risers on your harness and attach it to the carabiner.

That way your harness won't be ripped apart by the tow forces and your hips will only be squeezed together with half the force.

(run the release...

Bridle.

...under the bar)...

So that it pulls the nose up during launch.

This is ground towing, way different than aerotowing.

Bullshit. Until he starts getting a steep tow angle - which wasn't an issue on this effort - it's pretty much identical to aerotowing.

Mark Dowsett - 2012/10/17 23:25:10 UTC
Ontario

You are being too kind Paul. You shouldn't be taking all the blame for your incident.

...but you know my opinion already...

I'll drink to that.

Jim Gaar - 2012/10/18 01:40:14 UTC

My thoughts as well...

Didn't know you actually had thoughts, Jim.

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 13:00:11 UTC

You shouldn't be taking all the blame for your incident.

I agree in a way. It's obvious that both the tow winch operator and I made judgement errors that together created a situation in which success was nearly impossible. I wasn't paying an instructor for teaching services. If I was, then the assessment of accountability would be totally different.

Bullshit. The person on the other end of the string is just as responsible for your safety as you are - whether or not you're paying him nothing, five bucks for gas money, or twenty bucks for his expert running of the operation.

I think that in a situation like this it's impossible to define who is accountable for what objectively.

It's a team effort and the team flunked on this one. Since the tow setup was Mitch's toy and this was your first experience with one like it I award him the lion's share.

Within that frame, I choose to adopt the position that is of the most value to me. If I were to attempt to assign some, or all of the blame to someone else then I would be dodging the lesson I need to learn.

The lesson you need to learn is that in a tow operation the driver virtually always deserves at least some of the blame and occasionally damn near all of it.

If I assume responsibility for my own choices then future me will think twice when a similar situation arises. One of the side lessons I learned is to be very cautious and selective in whom I place my trust.

That pretty much rules out all Dragonfly aerotowing. And not a bad idea to avoid people associated with Dragonfly aerotowing when they're operating other flavors.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22660
What can be learned from this "scooter" towing accident?

Mitch Shipley - 2011/01/31 15:22:59 UTC

Jim, as I am starting to play with Elektra Tow (ET) at Quest Air (the battery powered "scooter" tow system you and Adam got me jazzed up about up at Highland) I've watched this thread closely. We all can learn.

Enjoy your posts, as always, and find your comments solid, based on hundreds of hours / tows of experience and backed up by a keen intellect/knowledge of the issues when it comes to most things in general and hang gliding AT/Towing in particular. Wanted to go on record in case anyone reading wanted to know one persons comments they should give weight to.

This guy's an asshole. He's endorsing one of the most despicable incompetent malignant little shits ever to blight the sport and he's a staffer at one of the flight parks that's telling people that installing weak links on both ends of the bridle doubles the towline tension required to blow off when just one weak link is installed, and he doesn't participate in any of the discussions in which the "thinking" behind the standard aerotow weak link is being cut to shreds. He deserves no quarter.

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 13:06:33 UTC

Hey JZ,

This setup was brought up by a visiting pilot...

Pilot?

...for the Team Challenge.

...whose name and home base we're still being careful not to mention on The Jack Show.

However I was talking to Dan over at Lookout about my accident. When I mentioned that the whole thing happened because I was looking for a fun way to get some landing practice he mumbled something about getting out their scooter tow rig and offering that as a service.

Did he mention anything about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Gd2kcyOes

http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7094/13952342741_f71f343877_o.png


http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7151/13952329131_03e535bc8b_o.png

...a good pair of wheels? Just kidding.

If you're into it, you might try bugging him about it. It's possible that if you got a handful of people together you could convince them to fire it up!

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

Carole Sherrington - 2012/10/18 14:18:00 UTC
Essex

The two-line chest release system offers the best solution for static...

Stationary.

...ground winch towing.

As opposed to aero winch towing.

The tow line never intercepts the basebar, so it's easier to retain full pitch control. A single line under the basebar will foul it close to the ground.

Big difference between pressuring it and fouling it. The former tends to be no BFD, the latter deadly.

The tension on the chest has a natural tendency to accelerate the pilot and then the glider;

Rubbish. The glider feels any vector change the instant the pilot does and instantly reacts accordingly.

...the glider will want to pitch up helping to get airborne.

The glider will pitch up in response to any vector force forward of straight down applied to the hang point. Paul's problems were that he didn't have a lot of airspeed and was resisting pitch-up.

The pilot being towed gives some additional dynamic stability in roll (to a point). This is because if the glider rolls left a bit (say), the tension pulls the pilot to the right, providing corrective weightshift.

Absolute rubbish.

If the glider rolls left a bit or a lot, the tension pulls the pilot right a bit or a lot, and the glider feels a vector from the right a bit or a lot and responds by rolls more left a bit or a lot.

If you doubt that try taking a hand or two off the basetube next time the glider rolls left a bit.

Furthermore...

It makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE to say "to a point". What do you think is going on at this "point" at which the misaligned pull is deciding to stop helping the pilot and start locking him out?

(This sounds a bit related to the nonsense about the tow force accelerating the pilot before the glider catches up.)

The release is always the same distance from the pilot and the Koch release has a "King Kong" chest thumping action for the master.

There are no masters of towing. A Hang Five can get just as overwhelmed, locked out, and killed as a Hang Two.

Big pneumatics would have saved your nose. (Ask me how I know.)

Ask anyone how he knows.

Glad to hear you're not badly hurt.

How glad are you, Paul, to have come away from five seconds of scooter towing with a rearranged face?

Diev Hart - 2012/10/18 14:22:33 UTC

One of the side lessons I learned is to be very cautious and selective in who I place my trust.

I feel the same and want to feel that everything that happens to me is my fault...BUT if this tow operator is not even aware of what they did wrong (they let you use equipment that was doomed to fail)....this could happen again (and again)...

That's Mitch's specialty - sending people up on half G weak links and training them so they can pretend that they can safely handle them.

So I just wouldn't take all the blame quietly....thats all (I will note you didn't by posting it here (thank you))...
Like you said....you hooked yourself to his rope and yelled go go go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0lvH-KxGlQ

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 14:28:53 UTC

Yeah, I totally agree with you man. I didn't mention it but when I went over the accident with the guy...

MITCH.

...he accepted some of the blame...

He should've accepted damn near all of it.

...and said he should have caught the release issue...

What did he say about the dolly and wheels issues?

...and should have throttled back sooner.

Another thought...
- He instructs you to nose up a bit and resist the initial pull as much as possible.
- Right after you verify and signal to him that you're hooked in by a double lift and tug he floors it.

Oops, there's a real good chance that that would result in your standard aerotow weak link increasing the safety of the towing operation. Forget I mentioned it.

I also know of a few people who talked to him on my behalf. I am fairly certain that he learned some lessons too. Knowing this makes it easier for me to focus on my own side of the equation.

What lessons were there to learn from this pooch screw that wouldn't have been obvious to a ten year old kite flyer after two minutes on the beach?

Tom Galvin - 2012/10/18 15:10:42 UTC
Pagosa Springs

I've never been paid. Does that mean I never bear accountability?

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 15:38:14 UTC

Hey Tom,

I appreciate what you're saying. You set a high standard for yourself and in doing so you raise the bar for all instructors.

Yeah? Although I'm liking this statement... have you followed my "discussion" with him at:

http://www.rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4258

I'm not all that impressed.

Ditto with respect to:

Tom Galvin - 2012/10/04 16:37:06 UTC

There are only a handful of designers left in the sport, and there is no breeding ground for new ones. In the quest for safety the sport has sacrificed much of the innovative spirit it started with.

I respect that. However, I'm not interested in an abstract debate about how accountability is assigned. In the context of my...

Mitch's and your...

...incident there were a lot of factors at play beyond payment.

Damn straight.

I'm not going to get into it because I don't see any value in having that discussion on an internet forum.

Where else?

- A private discussion that never gets very far between three of four people?

- Gonna try to get something of substance published in the magazine of the national organization whose primary goal is to sell the sport and whose strategy for accomplishing that goal is to advertise what a great job it's doing to make it safe and fun?

Tom Galvin - 2012/10/18 16:41:37 UTC

I'm not looking to assign blame in this incident. I'm sure there was plenty of discussion of the incident at the time. I'm looking for you to change your attitude towards the community. If we hold people accountable, then we can avert future incidents.

Yeah, we COULD. But accountability up the chain of command in hang gliding isn't even a distant memory.

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 17:01:34 UTC

Hmm, that's more interesting. My whole purpose in sharing the story is to help avert future incidents.

If you're motivation is to help avert future incidents why focus on this one? It's essentially a blown foot launch in zero or tailing air on a shallow slope with inadequate wheels and - compared to a lot of other shit we've had happen this year - pretty trivial consequences.
- Use a dolly whenever possible.
- Use wheels that can handle the surface.
- Don't try to launch on a flat or shallow slope without some air in your face.

Now let's move on to stuff like Bryan Bowker, Lenami Godinez-Avila, Terry Spencer, Eric Thorstenson, and whatever broken arms in easy LZs we can find.

So I ask you honestly and without sarcasm... how could I have responded differently that would have made a difference? I mean what are you talking about for real here? Call the guy out on a public forum? Get pissed and shout in his face? I don't really like these options but I'm willing to go there if it is the right thing to do.

Ya wanna call people out on public forums, get pissed and shout in their faces, and do the right thing? Watch USHGA's video on unhooked launch prevention and read the owner's manual for Matt's new and improved aerotow release and Dr. Trisa Tilletti's article on weak links. There's a big difference between a one time cluster fuck and deliberate serial killing.

His first response was to blame it all on pilot error (so I heard), but by the time I spoke with him two days later he had changed his tune and was taking some credit for aspects of the incident. People I trust, who carry a lot more weight in the world of HG than I do...

It's a real bad idea to trust people who carry weight in the world of hang gliding - 'cause they're very obviously not using it to keep hang gliding from going down the toilet but fast.

...told me that they had spoken to him and had managed to have a productive discussion. They felt that a common understanding was reached. In your opinion, in this situation or in any other similar case, what else needs to happen here?

Start thinking about why you had no means of aborting the tow and how acceptable a standard that is.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

NMERider - 2012/10/18 19:55:40 UTC

Hi PJ,
Glad you're going to survive this incident.
If all you are trying to do is get towed up high enough to practice your landings then perhaps an aerotow dolly might not be a bad investment.

Why invest? There was an empty one sitting next to winch gathering cobwebs at the time.

There were dollies available when Robin took his last flight ever and I'm pretty sure there was a dolly available when Bille Floyd took his last foot launched flight using his own feet.

I learned to launch from an aerotow dolly on my T2C by scooter towing...

Paul learned to launch from an aerotow dolly on his Sport 2 155 by aerotowing.

...and I used my pro tow aero towing bridle with no issues.

EVERYBODY uses his pro tow aerotowing bridle with no issues - until he has an issue.

The tows weren't as high as using a winch towing bridle but the glides were enough to also work on my landings.
Of course, if you are going to foot launch then by all means get a winch towing bridle setup for your harness.

DON'T FOOT LAUNCH UNLESS YOU *NEED* TO FOOT LAUNCH. And Paul didn't and doesn't need to foot launch.

Since you fly with a Wills Wing aluminum speed bar you might want to get brackets that allow the use of the eight inch pneumatic wheels.
Cheers, Jonathan

Tom Galvin - 2012/10/18 20:13:09 UTC

Call the guy out on a public forum? Get pissed and shout in his face?

Nope. None of those. The route that was taken by others as you described sounds like good corrective action. Hopefully it planted seeds for future proactive behavior. If someone is a participant in flight operations (wireman, tow operator, instructor), they are accountable, even though the Pilot In Command bears ultimate responsibility.

Agreed. But in a hang glider towing operation the Pilot In Command isn't always guy who's clipped in under the glider.

The Pilot In Command is the person who has the most control of the glider at any given moment.

In this situation:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2266
Nuno Fontes - Hang Gliding Towing Accident.

Nuno Fontes - 2006/05/27

The best option seemed to be to resist the lockout and slowly bring the glider down, even if it was crooked, but another problem arose when the observer had the towline cut when I was down to about fifty feet.

I had no chance. The glider that had been hanging on like a kite dead leafed to the ground. The left leading edge hit first, destroying it along with the nose plates. My body's impact point was the left shoulder and the left side of my head and neck.

the Pilot In Command was the guy with the hook knife making a good decision in the interest of Nuno's safety.

He had two options - he could help Nuno get the glider down in one piece or he could kill it (with no consequence to himself). Nuno only had one viable option until his driver overrode it. Somebody make the case that the driver wasn't the Pilot In Command.

And for at least part of Paul's attempt to commit aviation he's running flat out with nothing worth mentioning in the way of wheels, no means of aborting the tow, and not enough airspeed to go anywhere but forward and down.

Meanwhile Mitch is sitting pretty with his hand on the throttle with Paul's prospects for the future pretty much fully under his control.

Somebody make the case that Mitch wasn't the Pilot In Command for the greater part of that exercise.

And the Pilot In Command of this excercise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlIGsgNFRWM


is a little loop of green and white fishing line increasing the safety of the towing operation.

Speak up when we see something is hinky. Confirm rather than assume people know their roles.

Hey, maybe while we're doing that we could confirm rather than assume people are connected to their gliders. Just kidding.

Encourage a culture of safety in the local community of pilots.

Good freakin' luck.

drachenjoe - 2012/10/18 20:15:45 UTC
Germany

In our towing clinics, wheels are mandatory...
Joe

What a quaint idea. Make something mandatory that...

http://ozreport.com/12.081
Weaklinks - the HGFA rules

Davis Straub - 2008/04/22 14:47:00 UTC

Pilots must use weaklinks provided by the meet organizers and in a manner approved by the meet organizers. All weaklinks will be checked and use of inappropriate weaklinks will require the pilot to go to the end of the launch line to change the weaklink.

Weaklinks will consist of a single loop of Cortland 130 lb Greenspot braided Dacron Tolling line and should be placed at one end of a shoulder bridle.

...greatly REDUCES the probability of a crash.

Paul Edwards - 2012/10/18 20:43:41 UTC

Encourage a culture of safety in the local community of pilots.

Yeah, very good points. This is one of those areas that we become complacent in. Many people came up to me after the incident and were happy to share their opinion on why this or that was all wrong. If even one of them would have offered such an opinion beforehand the whole thing might never have happened. In that respect it was a good lesson for many.

Not to me, Paul. If you found a way to crash a glider I'm on the record telling you how to not crash it at least ten years ago.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

Brandon Russell - 2012/10/18 21:05:23 UTC
Ringgold, Georgia

I don't know squat about scooter towing but I think it might be important to note that scooter towing with a pro tow aero tow bridle would be vastly different than towing with the aero tow setup attached to the keel as in Paul's situation.

- You don't know squat about scooter towing.
- But you THINK it MIGHT be important to note...
- Scooter towing with a one point bridle WOULD be VASTLY different from towing two point.

If you don't know squat about scooter:

- you don't know squat about towing. One flavor - scooter, aero, static, payout, platform ain't all that different from another and you don't hafta be a rocket scientist to figure any of it out - although it helps a lot if you're not a physics professor or a tug driver.

- then please stop making definitive, speculative, and conflicting statements about things being VASTLY different.

An aero tow cart might have saved Paul's nose but only because he might not have ever gotten off the cart with the tow rope pulling his nose down.

Bullshit.

Just didn't want anyone to get the idea that using an aero towing bridle attached to the keel is OK as long as you are using a cart.

Bullshit.

At least that's my guess.

Do your fuckin' homework and stop making idiot guesses.

NMERider - 2012/10/18 21:32:18 UTC

...I don't know squat about scooter towing but I think...

...At least thats my guess.

I think your two statements quoted above speak volumes.

Fer sure.

Why don't you take some time and reflect upon the differences between direct reports of actual experience...

Fuck experience. This can all be done with rough vector diagrams and/or a bit of common sense.

...versus speculation...

That's not speculation - that's just incoherent babbling. Halfway intelligent speculation is a pretty good tool in a lot of these postmortems.

...and how this difference relates to this very important yet unanswered question:

Cool Breeze - 2012/10/12 00:59:25 UTC

Why do only .005% of Instructors or owner/operators post on this website?

I'd like you to post the first answer to Cool Breeze's question.

Let him have it. It'll be lotsa fun but take a moderate book and I need to get caught up on the main issues in this thread.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Tim Dyer - 2012/10/18 21:45:48 UTC

Pretty simple.

Aerotow bridle= AEROTOW! not ground tow....duh?

Lemme tell ya sumpin', Tim - and Brandon...

ALL aerotow launches and the few first seconds of the flights (assuming, of course, that the standard aerotow weak link holds) are short static line GROUND tows minus the tension gauge.

The glider ALWAYS lifts off the dolly while the tug is just as ground bound as a Chevy pickup and flies for a while in that mode.

And the bridle configuration doesn't become the least bit of an issue until the glider climbs to a steep enough angle behind the Dragonfly or Chevy pickup to put the bridle in contact with the basetube.

And that's a pretty steep angle and the bridle being in contact with the basetube under those circumstances isn't a big fuckin' deal. It's a negligible issue at first and, as the angle continues to steepen, all it does is start limiting your ability to climb.

Why would It be called an aerotow bridle?
why not just, towing bridle?

I dunno, Tim... Why don't you pick up a copy of the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden, from Lockout Mountain Flight Park and get back to us on that issue.

Tim the speculator

Tim the incoherent babbler.

Mike Lake - 2012/10/18 21:49:10 UTC

This 'casual' approach to towing has been more or less ironed out in the UK but apparently not in (some parts of) the US.

The parts between Canada and Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans - plus Alaska, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia.

Now, I need to be a bit careful here as last time I made a similar statement over on the Oz report I got aggressively rounded on for daring to open my mouth.

Just be careful not to say anything halfway intelligent - you'll be fine.

Except for maybe cowboy outfits (Oh look a hand glider on eBay let's all have a laugh) all UK towing is with approved equipment, procedures and training.

I'm not all that impressed with a lot of the crap they approve.

A new tow pilot doesn't just turn up for a 'go', bringing with him 'some' equipment configured as he thinks fit.

Likewise in the US. It's gotta be Industry Standard and have a long track record - although highly qualified operations can get experimental exemptions until the requisite five kills have been racked up.

This is how towing got such a bad name 30+ odd years ago when pilots were getting hurt and killed.

We've subsequently restored its good name by figuring out how to write the fatality reports to portray the victims as totally incompetent Darwin cases who:
- just froze
- pushed out hard enough to release
- snuck into launch lines with stronglinks
- cluelessly wandered outside of the Cone of Safety
- made no attempts to release actuate their Wallaby-style releases
- tried to save bad situations instead of releasing the towline before there was a problem
- flew without razor-sharp hook knives which could've been used in the emergencies to instantly slash through bridles and towlines

It's not perfect here of course demonstrated by an aerotow fatality last year due to an (alleged) deviation away from approved practices.

AND, I would submit, approving a practice of velcroing a Quallaby Release lever onto a downtube for all solo pilots - including sixteen year old first dayers like Lois - which...

British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Technical Manual

On tow the Pilot in Command must have his hand actually on the release at all times. 'Near' the release is not close enough! When you have two hands completely full of locked-out glider, taking one off to go looking for the release guarantees that your situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

...BHPA deems too dangerous to be acceptable when they're in the company of highly qualified tandem instructors and four hands are available to deal with locked-out gliders and go looking for releases.

Sometimes all this red tape is a bind, but on the whole it keeps people alive.

And let's not forget this one:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26870
weak links

Mike Lake - 2012/08/25 16:50:19 UTC

On the 12th August a new(ish) pilot took off on tow, his weak-link snapped, the glider's nose dropped and with no height to recover he hit the ground.

If the weak-link had held he would have had a post flight briefing instead of a trip in a helicopter.

BHPA needs a lot more red tape to deal with release specifications and weak link minimums and a lot less to deal with weak link maximums.

I really don't know why you are blaming yourself, PJ. As a pilot new to winch launching your ground crew should have put you right and if you, your equipment, or the weather were not suitable then they should have left you on the ground regardless of your enthusiasm.
Towing is a team event and your team let you down.

With such a casual approach BY YOUR CREW you are lucky you didn't manage to get a couple of wingspans off the ground or the result might have been a bit more than a faceplant.

He's an aerotow rated Hang Three with a lot of time - he'd have been fine if he had gotten off the ground.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

NMERider - 2012/10/18 21:57:55 UTC

An aerotow bridle allows a fairly broad range of motion, up and down or side to side. When the turn-around pulley is a long enough distance up field from the glider, the line angle relative to the glider is still within normal limits and allows the aerotow bridle to be safely used for scooter towing at low angles from a launch dolly. Once you are at a safe altitude, the aerotow bridle can be used to climb to a higher line angle than you would ever use relative to a tug while aerotowing.

I believe that PJ might benefit from using this system for the purpose of towing to do landing practice if he does not want to invest in a winch towing bridle/release setup. It's also a good way to work on one's cart-launching skills.

The whole idea behind cart launching is that it doesn't require any skill.

Tim - How about taking a stab at answering Cool Breeze's question?

Diev Hart - 2012/10/18 22:13:51 UTC

Your onto something Pud....
A friend of mine almost got killed when he and friends started playing with a scooter tow system....it seems so simple and safe but there are so many issues...
Was there a way to cut the line had the motor got stuck?

How 'bout outfitting the pilot with a release that he can blow in an emergency situation? Just kidding.

Pressure guage?

Yeah.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=756
Discussion with Tad about Towing / Foot Launch

Bill Cummings - 2011/08/20 01:56:14 UTC

I've had in my possession three different line tension (pressure) gauges for static boat and land towing. I got rid of all of them. Why? Because people at the tow vehicle were making decisions about what I needed just from watching the gauge.

As long as the tension's being maintained at a fairly normal level...

Jerry Forburger - 1990/10

High line tensions reduce the pilot's ability to control the glider and we all know that the killer "lockout" is caused by high towline tension.

...it's a no brainer that everything's OK with the glider. So just keep focused on that dial.

This is why aerotowing is such a crapshoot - no gauges and short inelastic towlines. Violates the hell out of Donnell's criterion for constant tension.

But one should know about this stuff also.....
Towing for me is still like a religon....

Yeah, the fact that it's controlled by networks of cults and high priests who preach piles of crap with have no bases in reality and tell everyone to trust them because of their depths of experience ensures that for people with weak minds - read damn near everyone in hang gliding - towing will ALWAYS be like a religion.

...a side note to some....most weeklinks...

Called such because they stay within reasonable specs for about seven days.

...I use are around #130...

Yeah, it's really hard to go wrong with a proven system that works and has a huge track record - so much so that we really don't need to be given the slightest clue as to what your flying weight is.

...and I know a couple tandem pilots that double them for tandems)...

How many tandem "pilots" do you know who have the slightest fucking clue how that translates to towline tension? Feel free to include eminently qualified ones in your answer.

...but there are so many details involved that one SHOULD NEVER JUST JUMP ON A ROPE....

One might, for example, be foolish enough to install weak links on BOTH ends of the bridle under the misguided assumption that this would enhance the safety of the towing system. You really need the guidance of highly qualified towing professionals to help you understand what an insanely dangerous practice this is.

...and I feel that is why PJ feels how he does....he should have known better (but than again it was not his religon so he didn't know the details.....BUT that tow operator should have (it WAS his religon)

And still is and always will be. There is a zero percent probability that he'll do anything to be ostracized from his chosen cult.

And that is what my first post implied.....sad
I have also watched people ST from a cart using protow...both over the basetube and under.....no keel attachment of course....
What are you guys thinking an "aerotow bridle" is?....there is something called a "V" bridle....are you just reffering to the extra keel attachment?

It's any length of line that can be routed through the tow ring behind a tug. It can - and should - be two point, in which case it's anchored to the pilot and some point on the glider in the general vicinity of the hang point or it can be one point, in which case the ends are anchored at the pilot's shoulders. And - two or one point - it's routed over the basetube.

NMERider - 2012/10/18 22:28:32 UTC

Case in point from 2011/09/16...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4BUqiCCZs


I have the bridle over the base bar.

Diev Hart - 2012/10/18 22:40:59 UTC

So you were scooter towing pro tow with an aero tow setup....?
Where is the "aero tow" part?....the pro tow part?....see the confusion?

Wanna minimize the confusion a bit? Lose the term "pro tow" from your vocabulary and start talking one and two point.

Edit...would it not make more sense to just leave that aero part out?

No. Just leave the pro part out - the aero's just fine where it is.

Also...

Recognize that anybody who talks about three point bridles is a moron best walked away from and ignored.

Diev (a bit off topic )

Tim Dyer - 2012/10/18 22:47:47 UTC

Why do only .005% of Instructors or owner/operators post on this website? This question probably needs a thread of its own.

Because they are teaching people to fly.

Yeah, that's always so much more fun and lucrative than learning theory, getting on the same page with reality, fixing systemic problems, contributing to the culture at large, keeping up with advances in teaching and technology...

Or flying themselves ie better things to do?.

And people who AREN'T instructors have jobs which require less time, don't stay up as long when they're flying themselves, and DON'T have better things to do.

I really have no Idea.

Here's a thought...

- You don't find many people with IQs much over the mid double digits lasting as instructors for very long because telling different people the same simple things over and over and over tens of thousands of times is mind-numbingly boring.

- The problem is amplified because the people who have brains and aptitudes need little in the way of instruction and move through the programs quickly so the people with whom you spend the most time dealing are the ones who have only vague clues which way is up.

- Consequently the semiliterate dregs who never had much in the way of brains to rot out to begin with are the ones who tend to endure as instructors and they're not gonna engage in discussions 'cause they know that they don't really know what the fuck they're talking about and will have their heads handed to them on platters within thirty seconds of them opening their mouths.

I have noticed this forum slowing down in the last few months, and I have been posting less as well.

Good. Less damage done to the sport that way.

(Although I have been ill.) But when I read that someone had a keel attachment aerotow setup on a ground tow, I had to speak up.

Then you're pretty late to the game 'cause there've been keel attachments on ground/surface towed gliders since the beginning of time - since long before there was such a thing as practical aerotowing - without interruption. The tow bars from the Seventies and the Hewett contraption from early Eighties had keel attachments. And check out the video and manual at:

http://www.willswing.com/learn/scooterTow/

and try to find a shot or even a mention of a glider scooter towing WITHOUT a keel attachment.

The keel attachment is to lower the nose for the faster speeds of aerotow.

The keel attachment - or even an attachment at the carabiner - prevents the pilot from being pulled forward with respect to the rest of the glider and thus allows him something around the full certified speed range at ANY steady tow speed. And the:
- flatter the tow angle
- higher the tension
- lower the glider's performance
the more of an issue this is.

In my experience with ground towing the line is always under the bar to allow the proper AOA.

In ANY tow start other than platform a bridle or towline routed under the bar will contact and pressure it and compromise control to some extent.

In all my tows, if I had my line over the bar, it would have made it hard to control, fly way to fast and cause PIO.

- BULLSHIT. If you're connecting at your shoulders or chest it's completely irrelevant until the tow angle is high enough to bring a line in contact.

- Ya know what 'causes PIO? Write it out instead of using the acronym.

How much is a ground tow bridle, around 15$.Save your face and spend 15$ on a bridle and 30$ on a barrel release.

Yeah. Thirty bucks for a two and a half dollar curved parachute pin, a scrap of washout strut tubing, a foot of half inch nylon webbing, and fifteen seconds of sewing machine labor to get something that you can't get to when you need it and won't function under load. Hard to beat a deal like that.

45$ for the proper gear that could mean the difference between having a fun day or becoming a lawn dart.

- Like the kind of proper gear that Holly Korzilius was using when she went out for a fun day and ended up becoming a lawn dart which would've sold it's sole to have the damage limited to what Paul sustained.

- Bullshit. Other than the fact that Paul had absolutely no chance of using his release as a release - which, big surprise, nobody's talking about - his release/bridle configuration had absolutely nothing to do with his faceplant.

Have you read Towing Aloft?

Pretty obvious you have. Ever considered browsing through any of the nonfiction sections?

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face

NMERider - 2012/10/18 22:59:14 UTC

Good post Tim...

Not by a long shot.

...and I hope you recover from what's ailing you. BTW - I fractured my ankle because I did not let being sick slow me down from aggressive X/C flying.

Aggressive XC flying which routinely includes landing in places with rather slim safety margins.

My suggestion to PJ was to use the same bridle setup and add an aero tow launch cart. Had he done so, I believe there would have been a more satisfactory outcome.

There is no question whatsoever that he'd have been fine. It would've been a fairly routine aerotow launch.

I agree with what you are saying about the use of the V bridle to hold the nose down or to reduce bar pressure when aero towing.

In Europe pilots foot launch with V bridles while aero towing all the time...

Yeah. Here's an account from one of them...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=553
Weak Links vs Strong, but foolproof release?

Justin Needham - 2005/02/09 03:08

I had a scary incident back in the early Nineties where a doubled up weaklink (unbeknown to me) caused a bad accident.

A Swift pilot who had been towing on the same site had been doubling weaklinks to prevent early breakage, but not advising the flex wing pilots of his actions. We had all been clipping into the same line. My launch on this occasion was in medium length grass where the tug had slow acceleration. The tug pilot was inexperienced. The winds were pretty much zero. On my "all out", I guess a gentle thermal tailwind hit me from behind as I began to run. This was enough to prevent me from getting airborne. I ran a very long way till I could no longer keep up with the groundspeed. The glider wasn't taking my weight, and I was then forced to push out to try and avoid hitting the ground. Unfortunately even in deep ground effect mush, there was still not enough lift. The control frame hit down, followed immediately by the nose of the glider and then everything went crazy.

At this point, a normal weaklink would have broken instantly and I'd have been left embarrassed but (probably) healthy in a heap down the runway. On this occasion, the doubled link wouldn't break. I was accelerated along the ground, with a flattened control frame, with my face in the dirt and absolutely no ability to release since my arms were being flailed about. All I clearly recall, is shouting "stop stop stop" since I could do nothing else. I was in severe danger of breaking my neck, since my head was being caught up in all this as I did 20 mph+ across the ground.

The tug pilot was inexperienced, and for those few seconds was concentrating on getting airborne, not on looking at me. (Mistake number 2) After ploughing a furrow for ~ 75 meters, while my glider disintegrated about me, the tug pilot got the message and finally stopped.

Why didn't I use a trolley you ask? Well there was no trolley on site, and perhaps I was relying on my normal perfectly adequate nil wind launch technique a little too much. (Potential mistake number 3). It didn't seem an undue risk under the circumstances at the time, - we all take calculated risks every time we fly. Unfortunately this risk had no safety valve.

...but they have been trained in the correct way to do this.

Right. They teach them that it's OK to launch:
- without a dolly, pair of wheels, or release that can be used to abort a tow
- on a one-size-fits-all weak link that blows every third tow and stays with the towline
- on a shaggy runway that hasn't been mown in a couple of weeks
- in zero to minus three mile per hour winds
- with a tug driver who has no idea what a mirror is
as long as they're confident in their ability to run really really fast.

BULLSHIT. There is ZERO excuse for aero foot launching. If you've got a surface from which a tug can take off you've got a surface on which you can run a dolly.

- And if you run a dolly you've either got a release you can use to abort a tow with both hands on the basetube or you're too stupid to be of much use to the gene pool anyway.

- And if you have a release you can use to abort a tow with both hands on the basetube you don't hafta babble a bunch of crap about using "normal" weak links being failsafe drag preventers and make the people listening to you even stupider.

- And you can tow people who refuse to do hook-in checks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51qpPLz5U0


...with drivers and crews who refuse to require hook-in checks without interrupting operations to wait for ambulances and clear wreckage.

Pud already addressed this issue and I won't belabor it.

IMHO - PJ can do this either way. He can dolly-launch with his same aero tow bridle setup and simply not tow up to as high an angle as he would using option #2 - which is to get a winch tow bridle/release setup and proper training for foot launching with it.

Just use a fuckin' dolly. They had one sitting right there, ferchrisake.

I wish you a speedy recovery and return to the skies.
Jonathan