To people unfamiliar with winch launching or auto tow the climb angle looks
very steep, and certainly is compared to an aero tow.
234 feet is very short for an auto tow rope and you would not expect the
glider to get more than 200 ft from that.
I have completed 10,000 winch launches and of those about 2000 have been
practice launch failures, about 100 for real. I have done about 200 auto
tow launches where the most common cause of lack of power is lifting the
driving wheels of the tow truck off the ground at the top of the launch.
Folowing a launch failure (rope break/loss of power)nearly all pilots take
the initial recovery automatically, moving the stick forward to adopt a
nose down attitude. This will always introduce negative G which in effect
reduces the wing loading on the glider meaning the stall speed is much
lower than is normally the case. If an attempt to turn is made at this
stage, as the effect of the negative G goes away, a stall may occur and if
aileron is applied and there is any bank a spin is most likely. A DG 1000
is one of the GRP gliders that will spin readily. A full recovery from a
spin at 200 ft is not possible.
This is why we teach the recovery as move the stick forward to adopt at
least the approach attitude AND wait until approach speed is gained. Then
make the decision as to whether you are going to land ahead or turn.