Mike, true, guys can have a heart attack or stroke on a tow, but in the past 10 years how many heart attack related tow accidents have we had? Like zero. Here is reality: 99.999% of tow kitting accidents are bone head related! What is so damn hard about ramming into a guys head that he has to be totally focussed the first 1000 ft of a tow? If I sat behind any of you with a 356 magnum held to your head and told you if you get distracted and kite I will pull the trigger! YOU WOULD DO WHATEVER IT TOOK to not kite.
Landing specially off field tales total concentration, and most guys understand that fact, why shouldn’t we insist the same for the first 1000ft of a tow? If you kite on me above that I don’t care, I can handle whatever you throw at me (been there),
Johns idea of something mechanical and simple has some merit for realistic application but that really will not solve a problem which is not mechanical but mental. If it is asking too much for total concentration on takeoff n tow, maybe we’re asking too much for the same on landing. Under those propounding a technological fix, maybe we need to develop a glider auto pilot with autoland functionality. You say “well landing involves a guy killing only himself “, what about gaggles? Maybe we need an automated system to take control of the ship when its too close to another guy? See the point ? When does it turn into ridiculousness?

Is the tow kiting issue serious? Yes. With all this discussion this week here, I was the tow pilot for yesterday’s club ops. I personally talked to all the guys flying, some experienced, some newbies. We discussed what ifs, the critical nature of my life being virtually in their hands the first few minutes of every tow. All were appreciative and attentive to my concerns. Before every tow after the line was taught, I stopped and asked each pilot to physically check their canopies AND to pay the Fin attention completely the first 1000ft of tow. Not hard, didn’t take much time, but it put guys on alert .

If every operation did these things, we could prevent/minimize the majority of these accidents.

Will bone heads still kill themselves and others? Yes but they will be rare and few. In that case I will take my chances on the 1 in a million heart attack. Unless you want to design, install and mandate the automatic cockpit EEG.
Dan