So how dangerous is wench launching compared to aero-tow? I only had enough wench launches to remove the "aero-tow only" off my ticket and that was years ago.

On Friday, December 9, 2016 at 7:45:05 AM UTC-8, Don Johnstone wrote:
At 08:24 09 December 2016, Pete Smith wrote:
No, the position changes subtly.

On my cirrus and N2 it is at the lower left of the stick box quadrant,
o
the
N3 in question and later gliders it is in the upper left.

Please read the accident report and its conclusions.

The accident described in the report was not so much of an issue
when Earlier ASW,17, 18,19,20 were designed and built. Same applied
to SH.
The accident is directly related to more powerful winches. The same
situation would develop with less powerful winches but it took much
much longer. There was more of a ground run to recognise the wing
on the ground and the acceleration was much less which meant that
when it went wrong it went wrong much slower with more time to
react. Not so with a modern powerful winch, when the problem occurs
it goes wrong very quickly, probably too quickly for any chance for a
meaningful reaction. What is described has always happened from time
to time, the only difference is that it did not start killing people until

the winches got powerful.