"JJ Sinclair" wrote in message
...

Any others? Certainly there have been a few at Torrey Pines over the
decades, though environmental factors have been a big player there.

Frank Whiteley

Its been a long time now, but a group was auto-towing a Cherokee at Air
Sailing, NV. The initial flights were made with a pulley attached to a
stake in
the ground and car driver heading straight for the glider. After several
flights they decided to put the pilley on the car and NOBODY knew that
would
DOUBLE the glider speed. The driver "Stood on it " hard and finally
obtained
his briefed 50 mph. The glider was now doing 100 and pilot was unable to
release due to excessive tow line pressure. The wings came off and pilot
was
killed.

About 20 years back, a group was auto-towing a Monarch at Kingdon, Ca.
That
went so well, they decided to hook it up to a tow plane. The ship did
several
PIO's as the pilot tried in vain, to release. He survived, but doesen't
remember anything after the 3rd grade.

My pilot licence still reads, "Aero-Tow- Only"
JJ Sinclair

JJ, you've had some bad experiences and I'm sorry for that. But you have to
realize that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of winch
launches all around the world that go off without a hitch simply because the
people involved know what they are doing.

If we take the trouble to learn from them and not try to re-invent the
wheel, ground launch becomes very safe and enjoyable. (The first thing to
learn is not to use a Schweitzer-type tow release for anything at all,
period.)

Bill Daniels