Martin Gregorie wrote:
I soloed on a winch. My only pre-solo aero-tow was the spin demo flight:
we managed to find thermals when we needed them for my actual spin
training. From my early aero tows I got the distinct impression that
winching is easier for the early ab initio than aero towing, simply
because most gliders are stable on the wire once they're established in
the climb while staying behind the tug is HARD while your handling
skills are still developing.

I have never winched but that sounds right to me. Learning the tow was the
most difficult phsyical task (as opposed to things like landing where it's
mostly mental effort) of the whole thing. Although I managed to fly a
large portion of the tow on my second flight, I'm informed that this is
abnormal, and it took many more flights to become comfortable with it.
Even post-solo, having transitioned to single-place gliders and with 40-50
flights under my belt, I went through a period about a month or two long
where I felt uncomfortable under tow and really looked forward to reaching
release altitude so I wouldn't have to do it anymore.

I'm all better now, tow is a piece of cake and as fun as any other routine
part of a flight, but it was definitely tough to learn and I can see why
winching would be much easier.

As for danger, we have enough open fields around our airport that I'm
confident of a safe outcome of basically any tow emergency. The only time
I got particularly worried was flying a fully loaded Grob 103 on a very
hot and humid day behind a tow pilot who didn't feel like climbing near
the airport before heading out. Being unusually low and distant from the
airport made me sweat, but some quick mental arithmetic confirmed that the
Grob's 37:1 glide ratio kept us well within safe distance of the field the
whole way up, so I never tried to get him to turn around.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software