Hi Kevin

Congratulations on managing this emergency safely. A low tow
termination of the tow is a true emergency, that some people have
not managed successfully, as discussed on this website.

I've been gliding for a long time, and my experience is that
unplanned tow terminations are very rare. I have only had two
unplanned releases, the lowest at 400ft at Lasham (Euroglide 73),
the other at 1000ft at Portmoak. On the one at Lasham, I was very
aware that the entire competition grid were watching me. Both were
wave-offs, due to towplane engine problems (neither serious as it
turned out later, but the tow pilots were understandably concerned at
the time). My experience seems logical when one considers that after
liftoff, the tension on the rope should be close to the drag on the
glider, i.e. about weight divided by L/D, i.e. about 35lbs or less. Apart
from shocks from slack lines tightening, if the rope doesn't break
during the first few seconds when the glider is being dragged over
the ground, a 'pure rope break' is unlikely. The rope is essentially
'proof tested' in the first 30 seconds of every tow. I haven't had any
ring or tow-mechanism malfunctions. So from my experience, the
most likely (but rare) problem is a tow plane engine problem.

You say you are pleased that you practiced for this. I assume you
mean that you are glad you practiced 180 turns from 200ft. I wish to
say that my personal opinion is that a verbal briefing (to go straight
ahead) would have been much safer for your instructors to teach
you, with a verbal briefing that any other alternatives must be
delayed until high enough for 'some maneuvering'. I'd put that at
300ft minimum, when a 90 turn to look back, and do some thinking,
would be be ok, but even then, a turn away to the safest area should
be made, even if off-field. Otherwise, go more-or-less straight ahead,
and let the insurance company worry about their glider. I'd
recommend that instructors should teach that a low rope break is an
emergency, and the only responsibility on the pilot is to get himself
and his passenger down without harm. Damage to the glider should
not be considered. I obviously don't know for sure, but I think its
arguable that this teaching approach might produce more minor
damage to gliders, but fewer fatalities.

It's not that a typical glider isn't capable, aerodynamically-speaking,
of performing a 180 at 200ft. They obviously can. Its that an early
solo pilot may not be able to, and experienced pilots under that
stress may not be able to either.

Safety is a tricky concept. My view is that, to be safe, one should
'stop before it becomes unsafe'. That sounds obvious, but then
consider that this logically means that we should 'stop while we are
still safe'. Ie..... we should stop when we could have safely gone a bit
further. The price for safety, is to stop too early. I can remember
stopping flying (for weather) knowing people were thinking we could
have safely gone on a bit longer. And they were completely right.
Straining this logic, its arguably safer to teach to go straight ahead,
even if an excellent pilot could do a 180.

I stand by my remark made earlier, that a site where a straight-
ahead landing is likely to produce more than minor damage, is not a
safe site.


At 23:20 01 June 2014, Kevin Christner wrote:
I had my first "rope break" ever today. I was approximately 200-
250ft
abov=
e the ground. Emergency procedures were not a problem.

The Tost released for some reason. Its a nose hook so the back
release
mec=
hanism could not have been the culprit. Further testing with the
wheel
bre=
ak on the ground revealed no problems so I took another tow and
had no
prob=
lems. The ring may not have been engaged properly (doubtful) or
the slack
=
I got in the rope was just too much when it tightened back up
(probable
but=
the release still should have held).

In any case has anyone else ever experienced an actual emergency
unplanned
=
release? In 14 years of flying I have never heard of one. Good
thing we
d=
o practice this. =20

2C