At 17:30 22 March 2005, Mike The Strike wrote:
In particular, I really wonder if signals to
increase/decrease speed, while useful for winch or
ground launch, are
actually useless in real aerotow situations?

Let's see:
- L-19 ran out out of gas just as we crested the high
point of the runway at
Sugarbush (LS-3 - full water) - I was 2' in he air
he was still on the ground.
No signals possible - except my hand signal after it
was all done.

- Canopy came open just after liftoff on a passenger
hop in a Janus. Didn't
need any signal - latch and go.

- Rope break at 300' over the high-tension lines at
Fremont, CA. I got my
signal all right.

- Three towplane release failures in a row at the beginning
of the roll. I
asked for a new towplane.

- Unable to release due to a non-standard ring. We
handled it by radio so
we could try to drop the line over the field. It's
still somewhere in the
Sonoran desert.

I've tried the speed-up slow-down signals occasionally,
but if I really
needed the speedup, I'm not sure I'd want to be churning
the controls.

I do make a point of knowing the towplane N-number
if at all possible.

9B