We are trying to collect some information about tow ropes used
in the soaring community and the process people use deterime the
condition of the rope.

This is for aerowtow only. As an example the Tucson Soaring Club uses
a 2000 lb breaking strength rope with weak links on both ends.
Experience
has shown that the rope is best retired after 60 tows. We fly off
a packed gravel dirt surface in LOTS of sunshine. We sometimes have the
rope break without applying a heavy load as migh be encountered
during training or gusty conditions. Do others out there experience
this ?
Do you chalk it up to "just another rope break?" Or do you log the
number of tows for a particular rope and retire it like we do ?

Hope to hear back.

Thanks,

Bob Perry