On Jul 13, 8:52*pm, Kevin Christner wrote:
On Jul 11, 5:38*pm, wrote:
Can anyone tell me if they've had an actual rope break below ~200 or
even ~400ft. *I have never, ever heard of one.

KJC

Actual rope breaks are pretty rare, but I think what you are trying
ask is who has had a PTT (Premature Termination of Tow) below between
200 and 400 feet. These are much more common.

Last month I terminated a tow at about 200 feet by pulling the
release. The tow plane wasn't climbing and I didn't know why. I
released and returned to the runway before we got too far away from
the runway to do so. Not a big deal since I practice this regularly
and it was a training flight anyway. Turned out the towplane was
experiencing carb ice and was fine after applying the carb heat.

I have hit turbulance on tow in my glider and got a slack rope
condition that caused a back release at about 400 feet.

The previous owner of my glider had the canopy depart the glider at
about 200 feet resulting in a broken rope and a 180 turn back to the
runway.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL