At 14:36 27 June 2005, wrote:
I missed your last paragraph. As I noted to Andreas,
it's all a matter
of what you are used to. A 200 foot rope break in
the absence of
strong winds or turbulence is completely benign, at
least for me,
having done hundreds of them.

What I'm finding interesting is the need to make fairly
dramatic
motions of the controls as part of a cable break recovery.
So again,
I'll flirt with the term aerobatic, not as a maneveur
designed to
thrill and excite and audience or a passenger, but
as a way to
differentiate use of the controls given these circumstances.

Even if you fail to observe the moment the rope breaks
on aerotow, and
only become aware of it as you fail to maintain position
behind the tow
plane, use of the controls is not nearly so dramatic
as post cable
break. Nor, apparently, quite as critical. Though
I think we can both
agree that they each represent real emergencies demanding
preplanned
action.


Under no stretch of the imagination can a winch launch
be considered aerobatic. I don't consider that you
need to make any dramatic movements of the controls
to cope with a cable break, you just need to react
promptly by lowering the nose to the approach attitude
and waiting until the approach speed/normal flying
speed is attained before turning. There is nothing
dramatic about the movement of the stick. I find it
hard to believe (I don't believe it) that you were
not warned about turning before attaining the approach
speed. There is nothing complicated about winch launching,
it's not rocket science, you just need more experience
of it.