Towpilot fatality in Oregon

On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:23:55 +0100, Chris Reed wrote:

Many UK thermals where I fly are narrow and sharp-edged. A couple of
weeks ago I was hurled up *way* above the tug (I needed to pitch the
nose down maybe 30 degrees to maintain it in sight), and was about to
release when it all started to come back together and I regained
attitude control in relation to the tug. This was only at around 200ft,
probably aggravated by the effect of some building immediately upwind.

I experienced something similar many years ago. I was flying a Std
Austria in a competition in hot summer desert conditions in Vryburg,
South Africa. When my turn came to launch, a Cessnar 180 tug pulled up in
front. Just after I gave the signal for “all out� I noticed a dusty on
the left side of the airfield. When we were rolling I noticed the dusty
moving across the airfield towards our runway. Just after the tug got
airborne it's left wing flew through the dusty. The Cessnar wing was
pushed up to a 45 deg angle. I thought the right wing would touch the
ground and that the tug would cartwheel. I was ready to release and
anticipating having to fly over a cartwheeling tug. But the tug pilot got
it under control and leveled his wings again. Then I hit the dusty - dead
centre. There was a big bump and lots of dust. Moments later, the
visibility cleared and I was way up – maybe 50 feet - above the tug. But
there was a loop in the rope and the glider was under control. The runway
sloped downhill and there was not enough length left to land ahead and
not much scope for landing downwind towards the rest of the gliders on
the grid. So I hung on, concentrating on keeping the loop in the rope,
with my hand ready to pull the release if the rope got tight. Eventually
the tug climbed to my altitude, I got back into the low tow position that
we were using, the rope went tight and we completed the launch. I landed
out that day and I never got a chance to talk to the tug pilot. I think
if he had any idea where I was he would have released me.

Ian