Mike Borgelt wrote:

The LBA/BGA/GFA/insert your civil aviation bureaucracy name here
bureaucracy get to feel good because they have "improved" safety and
can boast about this, most of the glider pilots don't care one way or
the other as they are unaffected and tow pilots are at just as much
risk as before as the fleet replacement only occurs slowly. Great!

Even if you completely discount the risk of getting out of position,
there is still a benefit to the glider pilot: the first 100' or so until
the glider has good control is significantly better with nose hook. I've
seen ground accidents that would not have occurred (including mine) with
a nose hook. If you normally aerotow, I think it's cheap insurance to
get one with your new glider. It might be almost as good a value as a
retrofit, but because retrofit costs can vary so much, I can't be
dogmatic about it. It was a good value to retrofit my ASW 20 C.


Requiring longer ropes would have been cheaper and would give
immediate benefits but here we are still thinking 150 feet is
adequate. Wonderful.

A longer rope won't aid the pilot in the first 100', when these ground
accidents usually develop.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA