On Friday, October 4, 2013 11:30:46 AM UTC-6, John Galloway wrote:
We in the UK are not taught to hold the release throughout an
aerotow. Have there been reports of inadvertent releases on
aerotow from this? Cable releases are not hair-trigger.

Especially for winch launches we are taught to "start the launch
with the hand on the release" . The following AAIB report is
relevant to that:

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...NN%2006-13.pdf

John Galloway

Hi John and everyone else, thanks for the responses so far. As I stated in the title I am only talking about aero tows. What I don't want people to think is if it is the right way for a winch launch then it is the right way for aero tows. I completely agree on keeping the hand on during the first part of the winch launch. If you accidentally pull at 50 or even 100 feet you still have a lot more runway ahead than with most aero tows since on winches you get off the ground and up in a much shorter distance.

Getting back to the original topic, we are already seeing examples of stories in this thread of people who DID hold on to the release and had a low inadvertent release. The problem does exist and has caused accidents. Please keep your hand off the handle on an aero tow unless you have one of the extending lanyards that have been spoken of. I could not reach the release for the life of me in my Phoebus and so had the lanyard attached. It sat on my knee with my open hand on top of it during tow.

Take care and be safe,
Bruno - B4