Very interesting and enlightening. I will do my best to control the unfiltered aspect of my personality with my response.

As a former tow pilot with just short of 7000 tows I can say I have experienced two very sudden and violent kiting incidents. One at 2K feet and one at just above 300 feet. Not every kiting incident is a slowly evolving type giving the tow pilot time to reach for and actuate the release. I was flying with a Schweizer hook conventionally installed and a release handle on the floor of the Pawnee. In both incidents I was unable to release the rope. The 2K incident resolved when the glider pilot realized what he had done and release, in the 300 foot incident the rope broke...fortunately.

I understand the tow plane in this incident had a Tost system and a guillotine. My question would be..where was the release? Was it down on the floor or up where the pilot could easily grab and actuate it? I could reach the handle in both incidents but again, the pressure was too great to effect a release. This is acknowledged in the SSA literature in BRIGHT RED LETTERS and yet these conditions persisted at the time of my incidents. My understanding of the guillotine system is that there is no pressure on the handle.

The autopsy seems to conclude there was no heart attack. The pilot was 5' 11" tall and weighed 190 lbs giving him a BMI of 26.5, just at the low end of overweight. He had some mild to moderate coronary artery disease, this did not appear to contribute to the problem. In addition the last view of the elevator appears to show it in the up position indicating that the pilot was trying to get his nose up....a futile attempt until the glider is released.

The report indicates that the glider was approximately 250' AGL when the ROPE BROKE under the strain. The tow plane was estimated to be 63 feet below the glider at the time based on a tow rope length of 160 feet. This would put the tow plane below 200 feet. My low kiting experience happened at just over 300 feet. Had the rope not broken I would have been another statistic. As it was I recovered at tree top level, slightly below some of the trees off to the side. I had just enough room to recover, the gentleman who died in this incident did not.

How long should it take an instructor to react when he can't see the tow plane? The proper reaction is TO RELEASE IMMEDIATELY. In the second video it was at 9 seconds when a snapping sound was heard FOLLOWED by the release being pulled. The report indicates that the rope broke under the strain while the glider was still attached. The instructor pulled the release AFTER the rope broke as I interpret the report.

If we can't expect an instructor to keep his eyes on the tow plane AND when he realizes the towplane is no longer in his line of sight to release immediately, how can we expect a 15 year old on her 3rd solo to react properly?

JMHO

Walt Connelly