To the soaring community at large:

I have been somewhat disappointed in reading many of the posts related to this thread. From what I have read -- Walt has identified what he feels is a significant life threatening safety problem effecting our highly valued tow pilots. He appears to be trying to get the soaring community to voluntarily install Tost Tow Hooks (or some other acceptable towing mechanism) onto ALL of our tugs to protect them. From what I understand, he is also questioning the reasonableness of contacting the FAA via a letter if no significant action is taken to self-police ourselves regarding this issue.

I understand not wanting to involve the FAA in this matter and I agree with many of the unfavorable outcomes that might result if Walt actually does decide to mail that letter to them. However, I do not feel that the solution is to tell Walt what HE should do instead of mailing that letter. That is not likely to solve the problem to Walt’s satisfaction.

Many of the suggestions made so far are really good ones – but they are likely beyond the means of one man to accomplish. Is anyone in the soaring community willing to actually help Walt solve what he perceives to be a problem?

Does anyone have a good FSDO contact who would understand the benefits of
establishing a field approval procedure for an L-19 and other tug types?

Does anyone have the experience to make progress on an STC to install
hitches on the tugs that do not currently have any paperwork available?

Can the SSA try to get some kind of Tow Hitch Installation Waiver to
upgrade our membership’s tugs?

Is there anyone in the soaring community with the manufacturing experience
(M&M fabrication in NM and K&L Soaring in NY come immediately to mind) that
would be interested in making the hardware required for the various tugs at
an acceptable price?

Do any of our soaring supply houses have a good contact at Tost for the
“group buy” idea?

Is there even a single club or commercial operation that previously had
no plans to switch – but based on this thread has actually made plans to
install an improved tow hitch? I am sure it would give Walt a great deal
of comfort to know you listened and are doing your part to help save a life.
(note to Walt – the tugs at all the towing operations that I soar from were
all upgraded to Tost Releases years ago and every tow I have given to fellow
club members has been from a tug using a Tost release! )

I would respectfully suggest that if the soaring community does not want Walt to send that letter – they should show him some kind of positive actions is being taken within the soaring community itself to address the problem. After seeing a windshield full of ground at low altitude and feeling helpless -- It sounds like trying to convince him that we do not have a problem is not going to be very successful.

If the soaring community does not step up and prove to Walt’s satisfaction that something positive is being done then the gamble we are collectively taking is that he will not actually send that letter or that the FAA will not over-respond to the situation. To my knowledge only one Blanik L-13 had an in-flight wing failure and the entire world-wide fleet was quickly grounded. It is easy to imagine a similar outcome here – after all the release being discussed does in fact have a documented safety problem.

While it is probably true that “safety does not sell,” we all are safer for driving cars with seat belts, air bags, crumple zones, ABS brakes, etc. Maybe the same is true here too. A lot of tugs have already been converted to Tost Towing hardware. Other conversions are probably in the planning stages for the off-season. This thread may be motivating others to upgrade too. Maybe the soaring community together can come up with a solution for the tugs without any legal means of upgrading. Maybe we can convince Walt that we are actively trying to fix the problem ourselves -- as a group or even one towing operation at a time. Maybe he will see that we are really trying but it is not possible to get all the remaining tugs upgraded overnight and that it might take a considerable amount of time to resolve this fully.

Maybe we can all be a bit safer one day because of Walt’s experience of feeling helpless in a tow plane.

Respectfully

Steve McLaughlin