On Friday, 16 February 2018 02:38:18 UTC, Charles Longley wrote:
Just don’t do winch launches.

Let’s see you’re going to attach me to the ground with some homemade contraption? Who knows what the operators qualifications are. No thanks!

Here in the UK all the winches I've seen at gliding sites are a professional product, usually a Skylaunch. The drivers have to be trained and signed off. Many sites - not just the biggest ones - have professional drivers. In the time I've been flying at a mainly winch site we have had one potentially fatal aerotow accident (tug upset) and one fatal winch launch accident.. Since we do far more winch and aerotow launches I think the conclusion is obvious - winch launching done properly is as safe as aerotows.