On Friday, December 18, 2020 at 10:36:48 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
As a retired tow pilot I can tell you that often the glider pilot will
do a "soft release" and make no radio call. The tug continues happily
upwards until the pilot makes a periodic look into the mirror making the
recorded release height considerably higher than actual.

Our Tow pilots report the same thing. and it wouldn't capture that except as compared to the glider logs and timestamps. Does the soft release have a measurable effect on wear of the TOST or Schweizer mechanism? for TOST overhaul it is limited to the # of release activations not flights if I recall. but that would be a different thread.

P9