On Oct 19, 9:49*am, John Cochrane
wrote:
On Oct 18, 10:53*pm, Bill D wrote:

So, putting this thread together it seems we have another plausible
scenario: the glider does a "ground tow" using a short rope, but
following a climb profile, with the plan being to release and then
land straight ahead. The rope breaks or back-releases with the glider
still pointing up at about 175 feet....
A nice thing, John, to bring the thread back to topic and
summarize.
There is one thing about this situaion that mystifies me: a witness
interviewed by local TV said "they had been flying about an hour"
before the accident happened. There's been no clue what actions that
hour of flying contained (or whether it existed). In any case, it
seemed to imply that the accident may not have happened on the first
go.
And, on a technical note, it *is* possible to do a safe 180 with
less than 175 ft altitude AGL, but from level flight safely above
stall speed, not from a steep slow climb.

Dan Johnson