Did anybody mention how the big crash would have been avoided? If the winch operator did not have cut the power, just firmly decrease it, the plane could have sunk a couple hundred meters further. It is a good issue to practice: hook an old parachute on the rope and winch it. You will see, it can be landed smoothly and slow, and the winch driver can practice handle the rope quite gently.
I agree weak links are useful and increase the (tug plane) safety in aerotowing. But, do you think the weak link is useful in winch or land towing? Because its cut out didn't allow the winch pilot to put down the HG pilot softly like in a parasailing trip.
If you stumbled on launch, how far would you like the tow vehicle to pull you before realizing you're digging a furrow with your face? And in parasailing, the boat driver is in charge of the Carnival Ride; in HG, it's the pilot who is in command and the driver does as he's told (within reason).
What IS your "normal" approach pattern? In my "normal" approach pattern there's no such thing as too high 'cause it's a helluva lot easier to get a glider to go lower than it is to get it to go higher and I don't get too low until I'm in the field and it doesn't matter.
You can connect to the keel through a weak link to a line attached to the keel, or through a bicycle/cable/spinnaker release, which is attached to a line on the keel. Vectran is used because it doesn't melt when Vectran or Spectra runs through the loop at the end of the line (if you release using a barrel release).
I just joined the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign hang gliding club. Me, a friend of mine, a few other new club members, and club president Craig were planning on driving up there Sunday morning, the very next day after the accident. We were all scheduled for our first tandem flights (except for Craig, of course). We were going to camp out at the airfield and have a barbecue. Arlan was supplying hotdogs and burgers. Seemed like a great guy, but I didn't get a chance to meet him.
Anyway, this accident has scared the shit out of me, because it could have been one of us in that glider. Maybe someday I will give gliding another shot... but not any time soon.
What is known, the event occurred at or near the departure from the tug. The departure from tow was reported (by the tug operator) to be a violent separation. The tug (Moyes) suffered a failed vertical pylon on the upper portion of the tug end V bridal, just prior to the tug end weak link failure.
