On Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 5:27:57 AM UTC-6, Pat Russell wrote:
Do issues like this ever get resolved?

Some do. Some don't.

Nobody is pushing for this one to be resolved because current practice is more enlightened than the thinking behind the regulation.

FAR 91.309 was written as a result of research conducted with a winch.

91.309 had nothing whatsoever to do with winches - it applies only to aero tow. It was written into the FAR's in the 1950's because none of the WWII surpluss gliders nor many of the subsequent Schweizer gliders offered weak-link guidance in their manuals.

European (JAR-22/CS-22 certificated) gliders do call out weak-links in their Approved Flight Manuals for both winch launch and aero tow and FAR 91.9 makes the use of those weak-links manditory.