On Jun 23, 3:58*pm, John Smith wrote:
Bob Kuykendall wrote:
Can you please clarify that remark? I don't see any urban legendry
here.

Winch launching inherently load the wings in bending more than
aerotow. Maybe not enough to actually exceed the design load of the
wings. But certainly enough to contribute a substantial amount of

Provided the correct weak link is used, the wing load during a winch
launch never exceeds 2g. Each turbulence stresses the structure more
than that. But as I've already said: Urban legends are here to stay.

Actually the maximum bending load on the wingspar during a winch is
equivalent to about 3 g, due to the point loading on the fuselage and
the lack of g unloading on the wings, but that still shouldn't cause a
failure. I have looked at the newspaper reports on this accident, but
they don't state which phase of flight the glider was in when it broke
up. They say that it crashed into a forest, which sounds as though it
was in free flight, rather on a winch launch when it would have been
over the airfield. Does anyone have any better information?

Derek C