On Saturday, February 23, 2019 at 10:22:10 PM UTC-7, Charlie Quebec wrote:
Exactly why we use low tow as much as possible in Australia. Ive never done a high tow. I cannot see any good reason to high tow.
That said, there are other factors in the report, age and a heart condition. Perhaps you lot would be better to stop second guessing and pushing your opinions
over this tragedy.

We infrequently do low tow here in the US. High tow keeps the tow plane on the horizon, at the same level as you. If you are doing a long tow cross country though, then low tow is used more frequently here. There are also different hazards to the low tow position, so what you save on one hand, you give up with the other.

As to the mention of heart condition in the report, it did mention he had coronary plaque build-up. But none of these were sufficient to cause a heart attack. No no evidence for a heart attack was found on the autopsy. He did have a big heart though, but that is unlikely to have caused a sudden incapacitation of the tow pilot.

The bottom line from this report, is that the glider pilot was distracted, got high, and up-ended the tow plane too close to the ground. The rope broke before the glider pilot released. I will do my best not to do this to any tow pilot.