Releases

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hang-gliding.com/
Mission Soaring Center

Learn To Fly

The Mission Soaring Training Program is a model for schools across the country.

Yes Pat, it undoubtedly IS. Like Quest is a model for aerotowing operations all around the world.

We are known for our well developed training program with an emphasis on the fun, intense and wonderfully empowering feeling of flight with a primary focus on safety.

Sure Pat, whatever you say.

You will train with experienced, USHGA Certified Instructors.

Will they all have one of those little red "FOCUSED PILOT" rubber wristbands?

Our small classes provide plenty of personal attention - instruction is complete, flexible and tailored to each student from beginner through advanced skills. Choose the lesson package that is right for you.

Will there be a launch assistant to make sure the student is doing a hook-in check and is properly connected to the towline properly?

Mission Soaring LLC has been serving the Northern California hang gliding community since 1973.

And you must've been doing a great job because that's an extraordinary crowd of flyers you've graduated in that neck of the woods.

The Mission Soaring Hang Gliding school provides professional training on state-of-the-art equipment at our dedicated training site at Tres Pinos (near Hollister, CA)... just south of the San Jose / San Francisco Bay Area.

- Launch dollies, Koch two stage releases, emergency releases that can be blown with both hands on the basetube, winch guillotines?

- What are you using for weak links - and why?

- Ever wondered what effect that autorelease mechanism would have on somebody who "needed" it? Did you read the reports on the Brad Anderson, Eric Aasletten, Jeremiah Thompson / Arlan Birkett, and Zack Marzec fatalities?

We are ready to help you become a pilot today! We supply all your equipment for your hang gliding lessons. As you become a pilot, we can fit you with everything you need in our complete Sales/Service Facility in Milpitas, CA.

Any thoughts on revisions of equipment, procedures, and/or training in the wake of Lin Lyons' near fatal on 2013/06/15?

Why Mission?

'Cause you really don't have any options that are gonna make a difference?

Pat Denevan and his instructors at Mission Soaring Center have been teaching hang gliding for forty years.

Sounds like a very long track record.

Pat is a leader in the hang gliding community...

Dennis Pagen, Davis Straub, Jack Axaopoulos, Dr. Trisa Tilletti, Matt Taber, Steve Wendt, Ryan Voight...

...he has been instrumental in developing the teaching standards for the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA).

Yeah?

USHGA - 1981/05

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

Dennis Pagen - 1994/01

For the past season I also added what Pat Denevan calls the hook-in check which consists of lifting the glider until the tug of the harness is felt and saying "hooked in" out loud.

G.W. Meadows - 1994/03

If we started teaching the "Pat Denevan" hook-in check we could prevent more unhooked launches. Pat's method consists of the simple practice of picking the glider up high enough to feel the suspension lines get tight, saying "HOOKED IN!" and then the usual launch announcement.

Rob Kells - 2005/12

Mission's Pat Denevan teaches a hook-in check, which is the "lift the glider to feel the leg loops go tight" method I outlined above. He adds that he teaches his students to repeat it if they do not launch within fifteen seconds. Pat points out, correctly, that it's more important to know that you are attached to your glider and in your leg loops than if your harness lines are twisted in some way.

So how come I didn't see Lin doing anything like just before his little romp in the sky a couple weeks ago?

He is currently the Flight Director for the Wings of Rogallo, the largest hang gliding club in the US.

Well if it's a big club and he's the Flight Director it's a no brainer that he's doing things right.

Mission Soaring LLC is recognized world-wide for safety and customer satisfaction.

And I REALLY APPRECIATE all the magazine articles he's written and his participation in all the discussions we've had to help us get things fixed after some poor asshole has been splattered as a consequence of USHGA SOPs and training and Industry Standard equipment.

162-20727
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16673571861_3962427127_o.png


So I'm guessing you sent an incident report off to Tim Herr with a list of recommendations to help us tighten up our SOPs and prevent something like this from happening again? Anything about the potential dangers of invisible dust devils?

[Tad Eareckson]

https://www.facebook.com/lin.lyons.7

Linwood Lyons - 2013/06/15

Went hang gliding, towing, down in Hollister today. Only one flight. Could'a been a tad better.

What happened was that I messed up the release loops and it couldn't release. About a minute in you can see me flailing around trying to release. Didn't work. Then I saw that the release pin was out so that wasn't the problem. AND, the towline is nearly straight down, over the basetube, so any pull on that is not going to be helpful.

So why the fuck weren't you using a Koch two stage?

What I did next was dive hoping for some divine inspiration. Thus losing altitude, which it's nice to have lots of for a parachute to work. Pretty quick I thought I was in real trouble and started to fumble for my parachute.

Two weeks ago, I took the parachute clinic. Thank you Lord. When the fumbling didn't work I went back to the clinic, put both hands on the "rip cord", pulled it out, and threw it away from me. It inflated surprisingly fast and pretty quickly I was laying on the glider, spinning somewhat, with the parachute over me.

I waited FAR too long to throw the 'chute. After it deployed, I was in the air about ten seconds before I hit the ground. And hadn't the faintest idea where but it was under some power lines which don't show up in the video, but I sure saw 'em on the way down.

36°46'54.30" N 121°18'52.56" W

The expensive/good news is that a wing spar seems to have hit first and broken, absorbing quite a bit of the energy. Other than a first-rate story and an expensive repair a very slightly skinned elbow seems to be the only damage.

While I was coming down, I was more than a little preoccupied. Folks on the field were watching, mostly in horror. I was nearly or completely out of sight before my parachute deployed. I'm afraid I took several years off of several lives.

Not enough, apparently, to prompt them into a public discussion about this one.

However, I'm a true believer in parachutes now.

Then you are setting yourself up, motherfucker.

What you SHOULD be a true believer in now is people at BOTH ends of the string competent and equipped well enough to do their jobs as effectively and safely as possible. DO NOT expect to survive another major towing incident because of a parachute, hook knife, or weak link.

And the fact that you're a true believer in parachutes now is all the more evidence that your training totally sucks - as if we needed any.

The second video, after I landed, shows me wandering around aimlessly, wondering where I am, and whether anyone's coming. Nobody home in the yard where I landed. Couple of folks drove by and stopped to ask if I was okay. (I was.) As soon as I got unhooked (not easy this time) and stood up, there were some workers in the next field, who asked if I was okay. That's the cause of the thumbs-up. I was (and am) fine. My pride is more than a little dented but that (well and the cost of repairs) is the only real damage.

The real damage is that Mission's letting you be a true believer in parachutes and the only one reporting anything.

[groundeffect]

http://vimeo.com/68791399


WTF happened? The release fails but why didn't they cut him loose, where's his hook knife? Shouldn't they use a over/under bridle?

[Steve Davy]

I fear that if that video gets posted on the Jackass or the Davis shows it'll be an incentive for those idiots to keep using Rooney Links as releases.

[Tad Eareckson]

You FEAR that? I'm looking forward to it. The more Rooney Links Jackass and Davis Show idiots use the more cool videos of Jackass and Davis Show idiots getting their faces smashed in were gonna be able to post here at Kite Strings.

Two or three people get it and go one and a half Gs - we win.

Thousands of idiots keep listening to Trisa, Davis, Rooney, Paul, Lauren and smash their faces in - we win.

Hard to go wrong with Newtonian physics - and Darwinian evolution - on your side when the opposition is anchoring its positions with expert opinions and huge track records.

P.S. Anybody notice how conspicuously quiet Jackass has been lately?

http://www.hanggliding.org/search.php?search_author=sg

No more:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=12682
Landing on your feet (for AEROTOW)- So Dangerous

Jack Axaopoulos - 2009/06/29 14:26:26 UTC UTC

OMG!!! You dont even have wheels!!?!?!?!?
YOURE GONNA DIE FOR SUUUUREE!!!!

I have a brilliant idea. People who cant land for sh*t.... LEARN TO LAND That way when a weak link breaks on you, ITS A NON-ISSUE. Genius huh???

or:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14410
Wallaby fatality

Jack Asshole - 2009/11/16 17:01:31 UTC

Nooooooooooooo!

after somebody else gets snuffed at a Florida flight park.

I'd like to think that it's because he's smart enough to realize that he's painted himself into so many corners that there's nothing he can say without getting his head taken off over here and doesn't wanna get humiliated the way Rooney was in February and March before Davis locked everything down for him.

Still working on yours, ground.

[Tad Eareckson]

WTF happened?

Shit caught up with a shoddy operation that runs on the assumption that everything's always gonna go right and has no redundancy or contingency plan for WHEN humans, Mother Nature, and/or Edward Murphy fuck things up a bit.

The release fails...

No. The release did EXACTLY what the pilot configured it to do - flawlessly. Kinda like when somebody overshoots the LZ and piles into the trees it wasn't because the glider failed.

...but why didn't they cut him loose...

Because, since it had never happened to THEM...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31052
Poll on weaklinks

Davis Straub - 2013/03/10 14:09:22 UTC

I've had no problem releasing my barrel release hundreds of times.

...they were incapable of understanding that it...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3391
More on Zapata and weak link

Paul Tjaden - 2008/07/22 04:32:22 UTC

I have never had a lockout situation happen so quickly and dramatically and had no chance to release as I have always thought I could do.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21033
barrels release without any tension except weight of rope..

Bart Weghorst - 2011/02/25 19:06:26 UTC

I've had it once where the pin had bent inside the barrel from excessive tow force. My weaklink was still intact. The tug pilot's weaklink broke so I had the rope. I had to use two hands to get the pin out of the barrel.

No stress because I was high.

...COULD (eventually WOULD) happen to them and had no emergency response procedure beyond...

Folks on the field were watching, mostly in horror.

...watching, mostly in horror. It's a lot like what NASA does after...



...they've pushed their luck once too often with the O-rings on the solid rocket boosters.

...where's his hook knife?

Hopefully back home in his socks drawer with his snakebite kit.

Sorry, but the hook knife as a backup release...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Zack C - 2011/08/26 00:08:08 UTC

Maybe because they're tired of releases that don't work under tension, releases they have to relinquish control of the glider to activate, stalling near the ground because of weak links breaking for no reason, instructors telling them to intentionally break weak links in an emergency when they can't get to their release, hook knifes being considered an acceptable release option, secondary releases on a V-bridle being considered a backup for the primary release, bridles wrapping on tow rings, tugs having weaker weak links than gliders, disagreement among even professionals over what a weak link is for, tow operators not having a clue what line tensions break their weak links...

In my opinion, we have a long way to go.

...is something of a joke around here.

1. There is ZERO excuse for going up with a release that has ANY POSSIBILITY of failure.

The Industry is forever telling its victims...

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

Jim Rooney - 2011/02/06 18:35:13 UTC

I don't really have anything against the Kotch release.
I think it's big, clunky and expensive, but I'm sure it works fine.
I'm also sure it has it's problems just like any other system. The minute someone starts telling me about their "perfect"system, I start walking away.

...that it's beyond the capabilities of human engineering to design and build a release that you can trust your life to a million times in a row (which is the kind of reliability we get out of passenger jets) because they don't wanna hafta recall all of the dangerous crap with which they've flooded the market and have people see how badly they've been getting fucked over when stuff from Tad Eareckson, Steve Kinsley, and Joe Street gets into circulation.

2. If it WERE necessary to fly with a release that could be expected to fail occasionally the sane way to address it would be with redundant releases - not this mostly useless placebo emphasized so much by these con artists. Using a hook knife as a backup release is like driving with a pillow you can grab and hold in front of your face in the event the seatbelt fails.

Shouldn't they use a over/under bridle?

Yes, they most assuredly SHOULD have been using a two stage system - instead of that cheap junk. But I discourage reference to the arrangement as an over/under BRIDLE. It's actually a configuration of over/under towline extensions. Yes, that's a bit awkward, but a bridle distributes tension between two points and with a two stage release the tension is being transmitted to one point and through only one path at any given moment.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29415
Holy Crap

Brad Barkley - 2013/06/29 13:58:10 UTC
Frostburg

http://vimeo.com/68791399

Where'd you find the link, Brad?

2013/06/29 17:09:41 UTC - 3 thumbs up - Tim Dyer

How 'bout giving Steve of K*** S****** some thumbs up for getting it out into the mainstream?

Tiberiu Szollosi - 2013/06/29 14:06:57 UTC
Illinois

Yawzzer ....

NMERider - 2013/06/29 14:13:01 UTC

"Holy Crap!" is an understatement.

The only thing I'm shocked about is that people get away with this stupid shit as often as they do.

Don Arsenault - 2013/06/29 14:16:32 UTC
Toronto

Holy crap is right!

Where was his hook knife? This is why I carry 2!

And I fly with three carabiners in case I forget to connect one of them to my hang strap. And I fly with an extra release so if one of them blows prematurely I can hook myself back up.

Tell Mike Robertson to go fuck himself.

Erik Boehm - 2013/06/29 14:21:54 UTC

ummm, so they kept pulling in the line even though you hadn't released?

Why don't you try reading what's been posted before you start making your idiot comments?

was there radio contact with the winch?.... it looks like he tried flying away from the tow point... and that when the shit really hit the fan

Also, I think he needs to practice deployment... that took a second or two longer than it should have

Get fucked.

NMERider - 2013/06/29 14:41:03 UTC

If anyone wants the facts then contact Mission Soaring Center and ask to speak with Harold Johnson:

http://www.hang-gliding.com/about-us/staff

Fuck Mission Soaring Center and Harold Johnson.

Kudos to Lin for posting the video. It serves as a cautionary tale for others.

Watching a normal Mission tow should've been a cautionary tale - 'cause there's not a goddam thing in that video that wasn't easily predictable.

You don't get to praise this new Hang Two for posting the video and writing the detailed account without cutting up the Mission pigfuckers for sitting on this incident.

And if Lin had been killed and thus taken the silence option off the table I one hundred percent guarantee you that five days after the fact there would've been a Tim Herr / USHGA approved cover story all about what an accident waiting to happen this guy was and a listing of all of his alcohol and marijuana arrests and convictions from the previous forty years.

Brad Barkley - 2013/06/29 14:47:52 UTC

I kicked my feet out of the harness to indicate that I had a problem. (But they already knew that.) By 1:40 you can see the towline nearly straight down, over the base tube, starting to put pressure to dive...

I'm confused as to why, if they knew he had a problem, the winch operator kept up the tow pressure...

They don't use pressure in some parts of California. Some operators have found they have better luck with tension. Think about suggesting it to the guys at Ridgely and Manquin.

...to the point that the line is "starting to put pressure to dive." Why wasn't the pressure backed off, if, as he says, they knew he was in trouble?

EDIT: I missed the part where it says pressure was released. That tow system is due a re-evaluation. Also, hook knife, anyone?

Yeah. The hook knife. Let's not forget about the hook knife.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJGUJO5BjnA


098-20006

Forty-three seconds at a couple of thousand feet with tension dumped and everything going right.

Lin:
- realizes he has a problem at !:24
- starts trying to throw the chute thirty seconds later
- gets slowed by the chute fourteen seconds later
- hits the ground seven seconds later

But if you too prefer to use a hook knife as a backup release, hell, go for it. You could probably beat his time.

Mike Bomstad - 2013/06/29 16:20:39 UTC
Spokane

Scary shit!

Yeah Mike! But...

Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies, has lived.
We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us.

A radio could have been very useful in this situation.

Yeah, maybe he could've phoned down and told them about the wire cutters in his toolbox on the floor behind the passenger's seat. No, wait. Car's locked and I've got the keys in my pocket. But I remember seeing a broken beer bottle at the entrance - maybe that would work.

Carole Sherrington - 2013/06/29 16:25:40 UTC
Essex

1:40, they knew he was in trouble.
2:19 the line was guillotined.

No. It wasn't. It was serendipitously severed by a hose clamp on his basetube.

For 39 seconds they watched the pilot having trouble with the tow line.
Perhaps the winchman could have been somewhat quicker to guillotine.....

Fuckin' idiot winchman never guillotined shit. If Lin's parachute had failed to deploy he'd have been a greasy spot in that guy's driveway several seconds later.

Spinnaker shackle type releases are rubbish.

ALL of the cable actuated ones are. In fact they'd hafta get about five times better than they are now to make it up to rubbish level.

But if you rig it properly and don't let some Bobby Fucking-Genius Bailey caliber moron butcher it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8305428629/


It's a pretty goddam effective piece of hardware.

I've had no end of trouble with Wichard brand releases on the boat.

If you've tried to blow them under a lot tension you have. But if you rig them properly they're good for anything a heavy solo weak link will allow.

I wouldn't dream of using one when my life would be on the line (see what I did then?)

Yes.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skysailingtowing/message/4049
Towing errata

Bill Bryden - 2004/04/01 16:20:18 UTC

Some aerotow releases, including a few models from prominent schools, have had problems releasing under high tensions. You must VERIFY through tests that a release will work for the tensions that could possibly be encountered. You better figure at least three hundred pounds to be modestly confident.

Maybe eight to ten years ago I got several comments from people saying a popular aerotow release (with a bicycle type brake lever) would fail to release at higher tensions. I called and talked to the producer sharing the people's experiences and concerns. I inquired to what tension their releases were tested but he refused to say, just aggressively stated they never had any problems with their releases, they were fine, goodbye, click. Another person tested one and found it started getting really hard to actuate in the range of only eighty to a hundred pounds as I vaguely recall. I noticed they did modify their design but I don't know if they ever really did any engineering tests on it. You should test the release yourself or have someone you trust do it. There is only one aerotow release manufacturer whose product I'd have reasonable confidence in without verifying it myself, the Wallaby release is not it.

Koch type two line chest releases get a double thumbs up from me.

Bullshit.

The Mission Soaring Hang Gliding school provides professional training on state-of-the-art equipment at our dedicated training site at Tres Pinos (near Hollister, CA)... just south of the San Jose / San Francisco Bay Area.

The Mission Soaring Hang Gliding school provides professional training on state-of-the-art equipment at their dedicated training site at Tres Pinos. If the Koch type two line chest releases were any good please explain to me why the Mission Soaring Hang Gliding school doesn't use them at their dedicated training site at Tres Pinos.

Still, he got his 'chute out safely, if a little slowly and he had an experience few of us, thankfully, get to have.

Let's all chip in and get him an "I survived the Mission Soaring Hang Gliding school's professional training on state-of-the-art equipment at their dedicated training site at Tres Pinos" T-shirt.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29415
Holy Crap

Erik Boehm - 2013/06/29 16:28:10 UTC

I don't understand why the winch operators weren't letting out line like crazy...
In fact it seems that they were continuing to pull in...
I don't understand why the pilot allowed the line to get behind him...
Granted I have no tow experience... but these all seem like bad ideas to me

I don't understand where people who don't have time to read reports find time to comment on incidents.

Glenn Zapien - 2013/06/29 16:34:21 UTC

Mike Bomstad - 2013/06/29 16:20:39 UTC

A radio could have been very useful in this situation.

Don't think they use them there. I never did, or ever saw anyone.

Is that were you got your "training", Glenn? That WOULD explain a few things.

The release they use can also be confusing for a pilot at that level.

- Wait a minute... What good is a radio supposed to do? What are they gonna get told that they shouldn't have known already from watching the goddam glider?

- What the fuck does being a "pilot" have to do with being able to understand how to hook up a three-string?

- So why aren't they using the goddam Koch two stage?

When I was towing, I volunteered for catching the line and helping hook the next pilot up for tow. One out of ten would hook that release wrong.

And when they didn't have any volunteers they just went ahead with no launch assistant and figured that with ten percent of the people on the other end going up welded to the towline would never be much of an issue.

They just hit the towing all day. Do as many as they can.

Gee, that sounds awfully familiar. And I guess they had better things to do during the monsoon season than to assess and fix their shit system and procedures.

Harold has been around this stuff for a long time.

That's a GOOD thing...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/25 21:40:25 UTC

Tommy.
First, I sent Steve a bunch of info offline. Hopefully it clears things up a bit for him.
Unfortunately, he's stumbled onto some of Tad's old rantings and got suckered in. So most of this was just the same old story of debunking Tad's lunacy... again .

See, the thing is... "we", the people that work at and run aerotow parks, have a long track record.
This stuff isn't new, and has been slowly refined over decades.
We have done quite literally hundreds of thousands of tows.
We know what we're doing.

Sure "there's always room for improvement", but you have to realize the depth of experience you're dealing with here.
There isn't going to be some "oh gee, why didn't I think of that?" moment. The obvious answers have already been explored... at length.

Right?

He is however getting up in his senior years.

So if one of the younger but highly qualified Mission professionals had been running things that day he'd have made sure that Lin was hooked up properly or at least have had a hook knife on hand to deal with the situation if he hadn't.

I would say with the limited skill level that those pilots have at that point, this guy did pretty good and did what he thought was best.

This guy oughta be given a parachute repack, a new glider of his choice, a lifetime pass for the winch and facilities, and a Hang Four.

That place is perfect for towing, and has been for years, and years.

No place is perfect for towing when the operation is being run by total douchebags.

I say good on the pilot for thinking and not locking up and surviving a potential fatal crash.

A virtually certain fatal crash. Remember what happened to Bob Buxton after this one:

Bob Buxton accident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2oeb0nNIKs
Scott Buxton - 2013/02/10
dead
http://www.kitestrings.org/post5902.html#p5902
016-04308
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3799/13746342624_c9b015f814_o.png


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/13746340634_a74b33d285_o.png
022-04610

Do the math.

I hope he doesn't quit by being spooked out of the sport.

I hope as many people as possible - established flyers, current and prospective students, FAA regulators, general public - see that video, read his report, and ask what the fuck is going on here.

2013/06/29 16:41:23 UTC - 3 thumbs up - NMERider

Bullshit, Jonathan.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29415
Holy Crap

Stephan Mentler - 2013/06/29 16:50:56 UTC
Pensacola

With regard to the tow point attachments - is there a weak link in the line?

Why are you asking? At what point were you seeing the glider getting dangerously overloaded? Before or after the winch was freewheeled?

How about a secondary release (barrel type - will work off of the hips as well as it does on the shoulders).

Tad Eareckson - 2013/06/28 13:01:42 UTC

What if you had at least had a pair of barrel releases on your hips instead of a three-string at the apex?

I am shocked to see that a secondary release...

Why do you need a secondary release? In a low level emergency most people:
- don't have time;
- can't react quickly enough; and/or
- aren't configured to be able
to blow a primary.

...and a separate failsafe (weak link)...

A weak link IS NOT a FAILSAFE. It is a FAILDANGEROUS.

The situation is NEVER safe when a weak link needs to kick in and if it needs to kick in you can count on things getting worse - sometimes terminally so - immediately afterwards.

...are not the SOP for all towing.

With the secondary release requirement you can kiss sailplane towing bye-bye.

Done right or wrong, a primary release can fail.

Bull fucking shit.

I have had two release failures in aerotowing...

- Sorry, I seem to have missed your report and the advisory and recall notice after the first one.
- And it wasn't pretty fucking obvious when you were on the ground before the first one how this piece of shit could/would fail?
- And you were totally unaware of accounts of scores of previous identical failures?
- Oh. So you had it fail once and you kept on using it.

Where's Charles Darwin when you really need him.

...one on surface tow...

So that release has been working fine ever since? I wouldn't worry about it then.

...and a line snag (weak link caught on carabiner) aerotowing.

And your reason for using a weak link six times longer than it needed to be...




...was? That's how long Lauren Eminently-Qualified-Tandem-Pilot Tjaden told you to tie it?

I hate to make sweeping statements...

There's nothing necessarily wrong with SWEEPING statements. Stupid ones, however...

...but all pilots who tow should have primary release...

Doesn't matter if it can be counted on to work or be accessible in an emergency... just make sure that you get it from a reputable operation and it has a long track record.

...secondary release...

You NEED a SECONDARY release for two point aerotowing because the primary bridle can wrap. You DO NOT NEED a BACKUP release for a crappy or improperly configured primary because if you have a crappy primary or you're not competent enough to configure it properly you have absolutely no fucking business flying.

and failsafe (weak link)...

Stephan Mentler - 82648 - H3 - 2005/09/04 - Jon Thompson - AT FL PL 360 RLF TUR XC

...as part of their setup. Without this, you are adding risk to an already risky method of getting aloft.

The single most dangerous thing you can do in any kind of towing is try to use a weak link as a failsafe.

Let's make sure that we all understand that this guy:

162-20727
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16673571861_3962427127_o.png


who was welded to his towline with no failsafe and and a driver equipped only for watching in horror at the other end of the string ended his flight in monumentally better shape than either...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe3YmdIQTM
tow.MPG
larswet - 2012/02/26
16-0605

18-0627

23-0817

31-0923


...Bryan Bowker or...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8696380718_787dbc0005_o.png


...Zack Marzec did as consequences of their one-size-fits-all failsafes increasing the safety of the towing operations and...

Bill Bryden - 1999/06

Rob Richardson, a dedicated instructor, died in an aerotowing accident at his flight park in Arizona. He was conducting an instructional tandem aerotow flight and was in the process of launching from a ground launch vehicle when the accident occurred.

Rob had started to launch once but a premature towline release terminated this effort after only a few meters into the launch roll-out. It is suspected the cart was rolled backwards a bit and the towline was reattached to begin the launch process again. During the tug's roll-out for the second launch attempt, the tug pilot observed the glider clear the runway dust and then begin a left bank with no immediate correction. At that point he noticed that the launch cart was hanging below the glider and immediately released his end of the 240 ft. towline. The tug never left the ground and tug pilot watched the glider continue a hard bank to the left achieving an altitude of approximately 25 feet. Impact was on the left wing and then the nose of the glider. Rob was killed immediately from severe neck and head trauma.

...Rob Richardson and his passenger did as a consequence of their tug driver making a good decision in the interest of their safety.

And I notice I didn't hear any of you motherfuckers engaging in a whole lot of discussion about Ben Dunn...

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...who, for the purpose of the exercise and despite touching down smelling like a rose, got killed a lot deader than Lin did.

[Tad Eareckson]

Lemme belabor that last point a bit more...

Ben Dunn - 69162 - H4 - 2001/09/21 - George Reeves
- AT FL ST TFL AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC
- BAS INST, MNTR, TAND INST

He's a protoad who had skills, experience, qualifications oozing out of his ass a dozen years ago.

He's flying Industry Standard equipment - including the best failsafe with which it's possible to get airborne more than half the time - and operating by the book.

His driver's a Dragonfly driver with a release actuator under his fingertips and a release system with a flawless performance record.

He's trying to find a thermal and - big surprise - he finds one.

He can't hold the glider down and level because he's a pro toad.

It doesn't matter whether he's got a primary or backup release, failsafe, or hook knife because as soon as he takes his hand off the basetube to try fix what's going on back there he's standing on his ear and his driver's fixing whatever's going on back there.

And then, as a consequence of him trying to fix whatever was going on back there and his driver actually fixing it he's going down like a fucking brick.

THOUSANDS of gliders with the same equipment and configuration in the same conditions are doing repetitions of this every weekend.

And what are you off the scale stupid clones talking and NOT talking about?