wrote:

"Tow failure below 200 ft lower the nose and land ahead, above 200
lower the nose and land ahead or behind", is simple, brief and to the
point.


Yes, I tell students that at 200 ft you can *think* about turning back
to the rwy. In addition to Matt's example of a partial power departure
puting you too far away to make the airport, also consider a departure
in a strong headwind where a 180 on a 200 ft rope break means that you
can't get the glider down before running out of airport (I've seen one
of those, btw).

Calling 200 ft is the minimum, IMHO, and my club teaches that. In
addition, I tell students that on all of my take offs, every few seconds
I say to myself "if the rope breaks now, I'll do fill in the blank".
That way when the rope breaks (above 200) the decision is already made.

I'm rather fond of pulling the rope on a student around 500 on a calm
day. The majority, by far, start an attempt at a down wind landing, when
the best option is really a more or less normal pattern - just keep the
downwind a bit closer in. I tell the student "look, in a 30:1 glider you
can fly a about 5.5 miles from 1000 feet(without a fudge factor). we're
at 500, and the departure end of the runway is less than one mile away".
And then we do the normal pattern and it's easy.

Tony V.


If you are at 300 when the tow fails you CAN turn around but
you aren't pre-programmed to do so. You may have sufficient runway
remaining ahead or have a nice pasture off to the side.