So here you are, minding your own business, dead center in the middle of the Cone of Safety, when reality rears its ugly head and pisses all over the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden, The Wallaby Ranch Aerotowing Primer for Experienced Pilots, all of Dr. Trisa Tilletti's Higher Education magazine articles... A thermal sneaks in between you and the tug so that the:
- first warning you have of its presence is a really badly tilted horizon
- tug wasn't kicked in a manner to help you out a bit
I've experienced two aerotow lockouts like this - both on a two point bridle with a "standard aerotow weak link" (226 pounds towline, 320 pound glider).
- On the first one - just like Heels - I didn't bother trying to release. Had tons of time but needed to hit a lanyard cutting the port corner of the control frame. Like this:
'cept just tied to the basetube. That experience totally disabused me of any trace of the Industry propaganda/fantasy that there's any such thing as an easy reach in a lockout. Held on, fully resisted the lockout, waited for the instant hands free release to kick in. Got horribly rolled and dumped with a weak link off the bottom end of he legal range.
- Second one my actuation system was properly configured:
but I was so dazed by the speed/violence of the lockout that I probably lost a second or so in reaction time. Still beat the crap out of the Davis Link.
But of course had this actually occurred on tow the glider would be in much better shape as we know from the Skyting Theory of Dr. Lionel D. Hewett - professor of physics; developer of the two-to-one center-of-mass Skyting bridle for surface towing; well respected for his knowledge of towing, bridles, and weak links - the portion of the sideways tow force pulling on the pilot helps bring him under the high wing and get it back down.
Just pray that it doesn't help you much more than a couple hundred pounds worth 'cause once your Infallible Weak Link pops you're robbed of this autocorrecting force and back to dealing with the situation on your own.
(There's enough overlap between consecutive frames that you can match terrain features and get a feel for heading changes.)
Summary...
We're seeing a pretty severe lockout on a glider using a 0.00 G weak link. If something like this happens near terrain - right after launch, scratching close to a slope - you're fucked. And to think that you can use ANY piece of fishing line - from the one everybody's forced to use which is incapable of getting an average glider safely/reliably off the ground on up to top legal / twice max certified operating weight - to function as a safish release or mitigate the situation is pure unadulterated insanity.
patiently waiting to become Pilot In Command again and thankful that we're nice and high. 0.00, 0.50, 0.80, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00 Gs... It ain't gonna make any appreciable difference. This shit happens incredibly fast, Mother Nature can kick the crap out of our asses any time she feels like it, the best we can do is use a release...
Tim Meaney has published a series of photos which show a poor launch by an Exxtacy pilot at the 2005 Big Spring Open. The Exxtacy's right wing has come up while the pilot is still on the cart. In addition, the right wing has come up so high that the right side of the control frame has also come off the cart and isn't being held horizontal. This means that the spoileron on the right side isn't deployed, or deployed as much as it would be if the pilot had held (or been able to hold) the control frame onto the cart. If the spoileron had been deployed, the right wing would have had a tendency to come back down. In this case, it didn't.
In the second frame the left wing is dragging on the runway and the weaklink has broken. This is a good thing. The pilot is in trouble and you want that weaklink broken so that he isn't dragged down the runway. Notice that he hasn't moved his hands at all, and doesn't throughout this sequence of photos. The weak weaklink does the heavy lifting for him. Use a properly sized weaklink!
The pilot is also using wheels and in this case that is a very good idea. The pilot comes off the cart very low with perhaps no time or speed to get up on the downtubes and get his feet underneath him. It's real nice to have the wheels between the pilot's knuckles and the asphalt.
One question (or actually more). Why did the right wing come up?
Another question... Why did we get no report from the "pilot", tug driver, and/or meet heads on this one? Other competitors?
People get killed on bullshit like this, the place is swarming with hotshots, we've got the photos, and we don't have ONE WORD from ANYBODY on what the problem was?
To help get the cart rolling the first couple seconds? What the fuck relevance could that possibly have?
Didn't the pilot notice the wind direction?
Didn't any of you pigfuckers at the ECC notice the wind direction - AND STRENGTH - when you launched John Claytor into a lockout which got his neck seriously bent?
And another good outcome that we can learn from.
That was yet another good outcome that we can learn from too!
Couldn't the pilot hold on better?
Probably at least twice as well as he was doing then.
Notice the pilot is not holding onto the orange handles in these photos.
Notice the pilot is holding onto ONE of the orange handles in the first of these photos:
Then again, Russell Brown had us double up behind him after six breaks in a row at Zapata. We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.
Probably just coincidence.
In the second frame the left wing is dragging on the runway and the weaklink has broken. This is a good thing.
The last time that motherfucker did that same launch from that same runway - the afternoon after he uploaded that video - it would've been a real good thing if one or both of his sidewires had blown sometime in the next half a second. That don't make it a great idea for everybody to launch with frayed sidewires.
Thank GAWD that kid was thrown out of the car before it went over the cliff and burst into flames! If he'd been wearing his seat belt... I shudder to think of the consequences. Everybody use a Davis Link in case you forget to let go of the left hold down and lock yourself out on launch 'cause it MIGHT break soon enough to let you come off smelling like a rose. Never mind that it increases your chances of crashing on takeoff by a factor of about ten thousand and will require you to do two launches for every successful climb to release altitude. And never use a functional release because none of those are appropriate bridles with which meet heads and cart monkeys are familiar.
is a VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL lockout on launch.
- The "pilot" fails to come off the platform (fixed dolly) with his wings level.
- One of them flies, the other doesn't.
- From the moment of commitment there is ZERO possibility of sustained airborneness.
- The "pilot"'s control authority is totally overwhelmed by stuff in the environment.
Always launch with a cracked carabiner 'cause it MIGHT break in time to drop you safely into the net if you start locking out back into the cliff face.
I did a launch like the one in the OP video a few weeks back. It scared the bejezus out of me. I was trying out a glider that flies a lot faster than my current glider. I let the glider come off the cart way too early. I remember floating two inches above the ground for a ways, just wondering what my fate would be.
So?
- Why didn't:
-- you just release? Why try to fix a bad thing and not just start over? Popping off tow is never more than an inconvenience. What sense does it make to continue flying with the bejezus scared out of you when you can just abort the tow and give it another shot?
-- your driver fix whatever was going on back there by giving you the rope?
- Sounds like you were in a good bit of trouble. Why didn't your weak link break? Were you using one of those Tad-O-Links?
Then again, Russell Brown had us double up behind him after six breaks in a row at Zapata. We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.
...to let the glider get very high. The higher it is the more trouble you can get into when you come off tow.
Ground tows will often have the wing hit thermal lift in the lower part of the tow. Is it better to go right to the max possible height or release early in lift?
A friend of mine got bumped off tow low going through a thermal, he tried to hook that thermal but ended up landing on his face and breaking his neck. He only just survived and really wasn't himself for a good long while afters... he's OK now.
Dude! A friend of Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's ALSO got bumped off tow low going through a thermal. Couldn't hook it, tumbled, hit the runway pretty hard, only just survived - but not all the way to the hospital.
I don't tow any more these days (greater risk/expense/hassle than foot launching for me), but if I did I'd want to go plenty high before choosing to ping, especially seeing as you can just go again if you bomb out.
Just manage the risk by using an appropriate weak link with a finished length of 1.5 inches or less, you'll be fine. Just a bit of inconvenience every now and then.
michael170 - 2014/07/22 04:26:35 UTC
How does one get "bumped off tow low going through a thermal", Nicos?
Geez! You go low through a thermal, you get bumped off tow! What the fuck's so difficult to understand about that?
Ryan Brown - 2014/07/22 04:29:28 UTC
With the system in Tres Pinos, a nice booming thermal will make the auto-release pop unless you can ride it.
SEE!!!
michael170 - 2014/07/22 04:49:41 UTC
Doug Hildreth - 1990/09
1990/07/05 - Eric Aasletten - 24 - Intermediate - 2-3 years - UP Axis - Hobbs, New Mexico - Platform tow - Fatal / Head
Reasonably proficient intermediate with over a year of platform tow experience was launching during tow meet. Homemade ATOL copy with winch on the front of the truck. Immediately after launch, the glider pitched up sharply with nose very high. Apparently the angle caused an "auto release" of the tow line from the pilot, who completed a hammerhead stall and dove into the ground. Observer felt that a dust devil, invisible on the runway, contributed to or caused the relatively radical nose-up attitude. Also of concern was the presumed auto release which, if it had not occurred, might have prevented the accident. Severe head injury with unsuccessful CPR.
We SO need that crap to Birrenate somebody to death to help us get the point across and finish off Peter and Pat.
The thermal ended up causing a weak link break of course.
OF COURSE. It was just one of these weak links that didn't meet our expectation of breaking as early as possible in lockout situations but being strong and reliable enough to avoid frequent breaks from turbulence. It needs to be tied in such a manner that it breaks more consistently.
2014/07/22 05:10:51 - 3 thumbs up - michael170
michael170 - 2014/07/22 05:09:38 UTC
Thank you Nicos, for your candor. Very much appreciated.
And, of course, for your participation in the Zack Marzec discussions last year.
Mike Lake - 2014/07/22 09:41:20 UTC
Auto-release, what an insane idea.
Right at the point when the only thing you have going for you is some power it gets taken away from you without your say. Nuts.
Wow...
So you know what happened then?
OMG... thank you for your expert accident analysis. You better fly down to FL and let them know. I'm sure they'll be very thankful to have such a crack expert mind on the case analyzing an accident that you know nothing about. Far better data than the people that were actually there. In short... get fucked.
Doesn't say much for their tow system or the industry does it?
Well, maybe it just doesn't say much for their tow system and the asshole or assholes who consider it the safest in the industry. Note that he doesn't say anything who's doing the considering. Pat could say to a student, "I consider our tow system to be the safest in the industry." and then use that a as legitimate basis for his claim.
And he doesn't define what "the industry" is. Could be the:
- stationary winch
- turnaround pulley
- two string release
- 250 pound weak link
- Birrenator safety
- no
-- launch assistant
-- hook-in check
-- guillotine
industry. If he's the only one doing that - and he probably is - then what's your problem?
So many voyeurs want to see your video. You need to raise money. Here's a thought - charge them to see it.
What? Again? They said they'd post the video after Scott got home. A bunch of people forked out lotsa dough to get Scott home and otherwise help him out. They haven't posted the video.
So many voyeurs want to see your video.
Fuck you, dude. Fuck anybody in hang gliding who doesn't wanna see the goddam video and have it circulated as widely as possible.
Responsible incident reporting started going extinct two decades ago. We've been in an era of pure unadulterated coverup, obfuscation, disinformation, whitewash, bald-faced lying wherever The Industry is involved for a long time now - and that's NEVER gonna get better.
Couple things we've got going for us to compensate:
- People carelessly blurt out accurate accounts on the internet before the coverup machinery has time to rev up.
- Everybody and his dog has at least three GoPros covering all perspectives at all times gliders are launching, flying, landing, and crashing.
We KNOW what's going on in the big picture a helluva lot better than we did when Doug Hildreth was working his ass off on reports, summaries, analysis, recommendations and being studiously ignored.
Yesterday was a light and variable day with expected good lift. Zach was the second tow of the afternoon. We launched to the south into a nice straight in wind. A few seconds into the tow I hit strong lift.
Zach hit it and went high and to the right. The weak link broke at around 150 feet or so and Zach stalled and dropped a wing or did a wingover, I couldn't tell. The glider tumbled too low for a deployment.
...we had enough to neutralize Rooney - to cut him up so badly that he can never again say anything of substance on aerotowing without getting what's left of his head blown off. If we'd had so much as an iPhone pointed at that glider from the side of the runway... That would've made it SO much easier to drive stakes through hearts.
Bring it all on. Get the video of Lenami pulling Jon Orders' shoes off and plummeting a thousand feet posted within an hour of it emerging from his ass. This is a reality based game and the more people see of it the more seriously they'll be inclined to properly deal with it.
...Chitty? Was Mark Knight OK to do the front end?
If you don't have the skills, you should not do it.
Oh. So if you make a mistake ONCE hooking up a three-string that means you don't have the SKILLS to be towing - you're inherently unsuited and should go home and play checkers.
So how 'bout a tow operation / flight school that has neither the SKILLS to teach its students to hook up a three-string properly and check that he's good to go before hitting the gas and has no means of zeroing tension to compensate for release failure?
There is more potential for problems than foot launching.
- Lin DID foot launch - ASSHOLE.
- How is there any more potential for problems for any form of launching than any other form of launching? Name a form of launching in which you can't be and somebody hasn't been killed. How can one form of launching get you more killed than another?
As for your pic, well, Lin set up his release incorrectly.
- Did Rob Kells set Davis Dead-On Straub's release any more correctly than Lin set his own up? They were both equally inert when needed. Show me some videos of gliders that CAN release in situations in which they NEED to release.
- If there was nothing wrong with Lin's release other than Lin then why did Mission swap out all their three-strings for twos immediately after this one?
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.
...Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney that failure of any release developed in this galaxy is inevitable - and that the best ones are actually much more dangerous than the worst ones. (Whenever Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney hears someone saying that his release is a shoddy piece of crap with a seventy-five percent failure rate Jim beelines to it like a fly to dog shit.)
-- So why even bother attempting to hook it up correctly? Maybe if you deliberately hook it up incorrectly your chances of it working are actually BETTER.
-- Our only real hope of long term survival is to use a weak link that will blow six times in a row in light morning conditions. So does Mission use a weak link that will blow six times in a row in light morning conditions? And how come Harold freewheeled the winch rather than locking it up in order to apply the Ryan Voight Instant Hands Free Release Prinicple?
- Despite the fact that Lin is obviously inherently unsuited for towing and should go home and play checkers he's still towing and Mission's still pulling him. Why didn't they instead take steps to have his ratings revoked? And what actions have you taken along those lines?
- Name some people you whom you feel have adequate skills to tow. Do you yourself? If so please tell us what you'd have done to come out smelling like a rose in a Zack Marzec situation. And then also tell us why you didn't proffer this blindingly obvious solution in any of the discussions and have left us all to continue to blunder on as before for the past year and a half. Ditto for all the dickheads at Mission.
At Tres Pinos, certainly not those with thin wallets.
If you don't have the skills, you should not do it.
That's kinda funny considering that Pat puts folks on tow the instant they get their Novice rating.
There is more potential for problems than foot launching.
Indeed. So what's the logic behind foot launching on a tow when you've got a launch cart at your disposal?
As for your pic, well, Lin set up his release incorrectly.
Yep.
And so what does Pat do to combat the issue of configuring the release incorrectly?
He goes to a two string rather than a three, and thus cuts the capacity of the release in half. BRILLIANT!
Of course Pat doesn't use a two or a three string for himself, nor does he use an auto release, does he?
Seeing any red flags there dude?
Mike Badley - 2014/07/23 05:26:43 UTC
I read the article about the 'pictured' incident. (Hope EVERYBODY does as well.)
- Everybody should've read it a long time ago.
- If EVERYBODY should've read about this incident then how come there was nothing about it in the magazine? What more important issues have been taking up its space in the year since?
He looped it incorrectly making it impossible to release.
Like the crap that Quest - which has been perfecting aerotowing for twenty years - uses for their tandems...
When Jim got me locked out to the right, I couldn't keep the pitch of the glider with one hand for more than a second (the pressure was a zillion pounds, more or less), but the F'ing release slid around when I tried to hit it. The barrel release wouldn't work because we had too much pressure on it.
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.
...up on as well?
That was a POORLY designed release for sure.
Compared to WHAT? Name ONE SINGLE "RELEASE" available from the US aerotowing industry that doesn't totally suck in every way one can imagine. The three-string will AT LEAST HANDLE LOAD.
I've seen a few of the strap kinds of 3 ring circus releases, and just don't like them.
These releases don't have RINGS - they have STRINGS.
I have a nice model with a delrin plastic body and NO CHANCE of hooking it up improperly.
I got news for ya, dude... I myself have ZERO CHANCE of hooking up ANY three-string wrong. If I can't get that much right I sure don't have any business setting up a glider, launching, flying in traffic, approaching, landing, driving home.
I also have a LINK-KNIFE set up (by Peter Birren from the Chicago area)...
You trying to tell me the pilot had time to release? Not a prayer.
I know about this type of accident because it happened to me, breaking 4 ribs and my larynx... and I was aerotowing using a dolly. The sh*t happened so fast there was no room for thought much less action. But I wasn't dragged because the weaklink did its job and broke immediately on impact.
Imagine if you will, just coming off the cart and center punching a thermal which takes you instantly straight up while the tug is still on the ground. Know what happens? VERY high towline forces and an over-the-top lockout. You'll have both hands on the basetube pulling it well past your knees but the glider doesn't come down and still the weaklink doesn't break (.8G). So you pull whatever release you have but the one hand still on the basetube isn't enough to hold the nose down and you pop up and over into an unplanned semi-loop. Been there, done that... at maybe 200 feet agl.
Peter Birren from the Chicago area?
...that actually has a set-up that cuts the weak-link every flight for release.
I just gave you two examples from Saint Peter of the Chicago Area in which he REALLY needed to cut the weak link for release.
- In the first it actually DIDN'T cut the weak link. He had to wait until four of his ribs, his larynx, and his weak link broke before the tow was safely terminated.
- In the second he had to had to leave his glider pilotless during the most critical and dangerous moment of his hang gliding career in order to cut the weak link with his award winning miracle release and, for the purpose of the exercise, the stupid motherfucker was totally killed a half dozen times over.
I prefer that one
I'm sure you do. And I'm also one hundred percent positive that there's not a fuckin' single Linknifer on the planet who understands that TWO hands are required to fly a glider.
I've got the same universal contempt for Linknifers that I do for Aussie Methodist. Nobody in either category - and there's gotta be a good chunk of overlap - has the slightest fuckin' clue what's important in the relevant situation or how to go about accomplishing it without going through a lot of unnecessary, ineffective, counterproductive bullshit. Fuck anybody who can't figure out a one hundred percent bulletproof means of terminating a tow without having to hack his way off or even adopt other people's sane solutions.
The pilot had plenty of time to actually get a hook-knife out (in this case) and 'cut' the towing strap - but sadly, he didn't have one.
(Not that a hook knife is going to be of much use to you if you are crooked, low and getting locked out - because there just isn't time to grab the knife)
It wasn't of much use to Todd when he was half a mile high and flat as a pancake with everything else going right and under control. Anybody who talks about a hook knife in the context of ANY towing situation is a total moron.
For some reason, the tow rig operator did not dump pressure...
Linknifer, hook knifer, pressurer, Jack Show member in good standing... Gotta love the consistency.
...until the glider was well pitched over and in trouble.
He DID dump the "PRESSURE". But that still left enough reverse towline PRESSURE to sustain the glider in a terminal dive.
Lin, as a Hang Two STUDENT, fucked up connecting his three-string ONCE and that makes him too hopelessly unskilled and inherently unsuited to be towing hang gliders.
ALL the motherfuckers at Mission DELIBERATELY ELECTED to pull untold tens of thousands of tows with ZERO options for zeroing the PRESSURE. But they're all great guys, cool dudes, the best of the best, the only option to consider for your training.
Anyway - there is an added complexity to towing and it isn't for the absent minded.
Then it isn't for ANY OF US - because every last one of us is a scatterbrained space case. And anybody who fails to recognize that in himself and admit it is just BEGGING to get totaled and really SHOULD stay home and play checkers and never get behind the wheel of ANYTHING.
And the total fucking assholes who are FOCUSED PILOTS are the ones who have the LEAST business getting under a wing. 'Cause while they're totally FOCUSED on some bullshit item - usually a traffic cone in the middle of a field - they're one hundred percent absent minded on a dozen other issues with the constant potential to kill them.
Gimme Lin any day of the week over one of you perfect focused motherfuckers who's never made a mistake and never will. He made a very serious but understandable mistake, dealt with and survived it a helluva lot better than Focused Pilot Zack Marzec dealt with and survived perfectly adhering to Standard Operating Procedure, publicized it, understands it, and will never make it again. (Same way I'll never launch partially hooked in...
...again.)
I think you also have to spend a lot of time going over the 'what ifs' and drilling the emergency procedures before even attempting tow.
Just make real sure you totally ignore the "What if I'm gonna die if I stop resisting the lockout AND if I don't effect the easy reach to my release?" and "What if I'm standing on my tail with the bar stuffed and my Birrenator kicks in, driver fixes whatever's going on back there by giving me the rope, or my standard aerotow weak link increases the safety of the towing operation?" what ifs. Also make sure to avoid the "What if my wing doesn't stop going up where it usually does when I'm three steps into my run off the ramp?" what if like the plague.
And, of course, make sure you do your drilling of the emergency procedures on the launch dolly with a buddy pulling thirty pounds of towline tension and/or at two thousand feet in smooth air with the glider straight and level. Don't do a realistic simulation 'cause your chances of coming out alive will be as total shit as with the real deal and, if you DO survive, your faith in all the towing religious beliefs you've been sucking up for all these decades will be severely shaken. Things will tend to go the way they do in the videos and fatality reports you keep studiously ignoring.
Watching several is critical.
How? If you're watching one item aren't you gonna be absent minded with regard to others?
You should also have the mindset that if ANYTHING is going wrong while on tow - getting OFF the tow immediately is the BEST choice.
ANYTHING. When in doubt kill your thrust then use the time you're recovering from your stall to decide what your three best options are gonna be.
Good tow operators can really save your bacon.
What if we're surface towing at Mission or aerotowing ANYWHERE?
How well do you trust those guys that are pulling you up?
I don't - AT ALL. They're pretty much all a bunch of off the scale stupid, incompetent, arrogant, sleazy pigfuckers. I get my kicks now from watching them augur in on their Dragonflies.
Do they work off checklists?
I hope not. Pretty much any checklist I've ever seen is loaded with so much crap it makes me nauseous.
Is the procedure the SAME for every pilot, every time?
The weak link for sure. Up to six consecutive pops any anyway. Then Russell pencils in "x2" and tells you to let him know if you're following the tweaked procedure so's he can adjust his flying accordingly.
Ah, Jeez - I didn't mean to get on my soap box about towing.
Well it's sure a good thing you did 'cause we've had so many people die on tow 'cause nobody ever told them they should have the mindset that if ANYTHING is going wrong while on tow getting OFF the tow immediately is the BEST choice. There are SO MANY people who think they can fix bad things and don't wanna start over.
As to safety, this ain't rock&roll, this is eff'ing hanggliding!
Which is totally controlled by...
Zack C - 2010/12/13 04:58:15 UTC
I had a very different mindset too back then and trusted the people that made my equipment. Since then I've realized (largely due to this discussion) that while I can certainly consider the advice of others, I can't trust anyone in this sport but myself.
Zack C - 2012/06/02 02:20:45 UTC
I just cannot fathom how our sport can be so screwed up.
... total eff'ing morons and sleazebags!
Towing has some extra risks, as does foot-launching.
So let's get the risk level as high as possible with foot launch towing.
At least for the new students anyway. After they've mastered foot launch towing we can move them to dollies.
Pay extra attention to everything...
Damn right, Point. Too bad nobody ever told Lin to pay extra attention to everything. Then, in addition to making sure that his backup loop was in good shape and engaged and his Birrenator was properly adjusted to pop him off tow whenever his nose got uncomfortably high, Lin would've hooked up his three-string properly.
And Mission Tow Operators... Point obviously just means the student under the glider. So you motherfuckers are all good continuing to pay no attention to anything.
...and be the Pilot In Kommand!
Unless/Until your fishing line, Birrenator, and/or driver tell you different.
It's really great the way everybody feels so superior and testosteroney piling on a situation like this. But when some golden boy pro toad...
Sorry, I'm sick and tired of all these soap box bullshit assheads that feel the need to spout their shit at funerals. I just buried my friend and you're seizing the moment to preach your bullshit? GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!!!!!
I can barely stand these pompus asswipes on a normal day.
Kinsley Sykes - 2013/02/09 23:49:42 UTC
I get pretty torqued up at the "strong weak link" advocates who come out of the woodwork when something like this happens and use it to say "see, this proves my/our point". This, in spite of not being there and only having second hand information to make this point. If you believe that fine, knock yourself out, but don't use BS like "this wouldn't have happened if only you had listened to me".
I have the greatest respect of Paul and Mark and their willingness to share what they know. I have zero respect for those who are using a tragedy to advocate a particular position, particularly when there is no proven link between their point and this accident.
Kinsley Sykes - 2013/02/11 17:46:12 UTC
Because this has been beaten to death - google Tad Eareckson and try to read the mind-numbing BS. Most of the folks who have been towing for decades have worked this stuff out.
The reason for the vehemence of the response is they pile on to any AT accident, with no knowledge of the cause, and trot out the, if only he had a strong weaklink, nothing would have happened.
It's fine to want to work on better solutions to make us all safer by improving technology, it's ugly and inhuman to use the death of a really nice guy to advance your point... in case it wasn't obvious I agree with Bart and Jim, and no it's not a lack of english comprehension - he said there would have been a different outcome with a stronger weaklink.
If you had been properly trained on how to tow, you would know that it shouldn't be a big deal when a weak link breaks, even just after coming off the cart, if you are doing things right. Maybe you should get some better training instead of just parroting Tad. When you are under tow you should be ready for any unusual event and be ready to deal with it. It's called being a pilot instead of just being a passenger along for the ride.
Using someone else's tragedy to further your agenda is pathetic.
