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Old February 21st 19, 04:11 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Tango Eight
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Default TOW PLANE Accident

On Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 7:59:06 PM UTC-5, Nick Kennedy wrote:
My take after reading the NTSB report is the glider pilot looked away to adjust a GoPro, Got High on the tow early and drove the tug into the ground..
Does this sound correct?
God Damn it. These are easily preventable accidents.
Killing Tow Pilots like this is very bad form.
When I was towing I'd look pilots in the eye that I didn't know and say " If you get high on me your getting rope, immediately." Got it?


I got angry reading that report. I channeled that into a calm, cool, pointed email note to my club entitled "Don't Kill Your Tow Pilot". The ensuing discussion is satisfying.

I know this much for certain: I never want to be the subject of, or accessory to, or close friends of anyone involved an accident like that.

What I've discovered as an instructor... my pre-solo students have no issues keeping focused on tow, and the real pros don't have any issues, either. "Pro" in this case means (roughly speaking) 1000 hrs in gliders. The guys in the middle though... virtually all will fiddle with something below 500' once in three flights. Radio. Vents. Vario. Camera. Water bottle. Changing glasses. Drives me nuts. One glider instructor (not a tow pilot) tried to argue with me that it was okay to fiddle with the panel!! God damnit, you have ONE job: fly in safe formation with your tug. This accident goes in the same file with that rating-collector instructor at Sugarbush that killed his commercial ride passenger and two aircraft trying to close an unsecured canopy on tow. One wonders why we grant CFI-Gs to guys with 100 hrs in gliders, but that's another rant.

It's probable that anyone that does anything other than fly the tow on a Spring check ride or BFR with me going forward will earn themselves an extra tow in addition to a pointed critique. Club President already refers to me as the "big bad wolf", why disappoint?

Take off/departure accidents seem very preventable. I've made it my job to work on such prevention at my club and it has, at times, caused me to be unpopular. Checklist discipline & cockpit discipline at both ends of the rope save lives. Do it. Let's see if we can get through 2019 with fewer than our running average of 6 USA gliding related fatalities.

Evan Ludeman / T8