On Sep 8, 8:13*am, tstock wrote:
I've heard some pilots say they would prefer to do an intentional rope
break than to try to land with the tow plane.

Tom

That would be my preference - especially with a high performance
glider. Landing a 50:1 glider with marginal air/wheel brakes on tow
doesn't sound workable to me.

The breaking strength of the weak link only has to be exceeded for a
millisecond to break it. It's easy to do that using full spoilers
applied with slack in the rope while raising the nose. Neither the
glider pilot nor tuggee will feel more than a slight tug as the link
breaks - if you're using the correct weak link.

Student pilots break links/ropes all the time so it shouldn't be hard
to do it on purpose. Obviously, this works better with a heavy glider.