Inflight Emergency

Today while towing my wife, a pre-solo student, the tow plane suffered a
power loss at about 300' AGL and started down. Too low to think of
turning back, I was chanting "Straight ahead, straight ahead" as I began
rocking the wings. I did not feel a release so I pulled my release and
began a slight turn to the left.

Looking down, I saw the mixture lever just above idle cutoff. I
advanced it and got the power back. Climbing towards downwind, I looked
back and saw the glider in a right turn back for the runway. Then the
engine cut out again! I found the mixture again at idle cutoff. Screw
this - I'm landing behind the glider if I can make it. I was too close
so I took the parallel taxiway and we rolled out together.

Turns out I was wearing gloves that I hadn't flown with before. They had
a tightening strap on the inside of the wrist and I think that strap
snagged the mixture lever. I changed gloves and had more problems for
the day.

My wife told me that, when I waved her off, she immediately pulled the
release and started a turn into the wind. Her instructor asked, "Did
you pull the release?", since he hadn't seen me rock the wings. She
said that she had. This was her first experience with a premature
termination of the tow and she handled it like a pro. I'm so proud of her!
--
Dan Marotta