Fatal Towplane Accident 5-9-20

"In 33 years of flying sailplanes I was given the rope once. The tow pilot was new and only had 3 tow's prior. It was a WAVE day and it was bumpy on tow. He gave me the rope at 400 ft. I was directly behind the tow plane when it happen. The tow pilot had never flew in wave conditions before. I was unhappy because it was a glider ride I was performing. BTW, that was the last day that tow pilot towed.
Regards,"
xxx tow pilot

I’ve been towing for 35 years and have had kitting incidents, all with the schweizer hitch, and mostly pawnee’s. You can believe I am paying serious attention the first 500 ft of every tow!
I only had one instance of s schweizer hitch not releasing immediately. A 2-33 kitted severely and I yanked that release almost immediately. I rolled hard left then yanked again and she released. I got the load pulling more sideways than upwards. Thankfully I had the altitude to make that radical move with my nose pointing 60degrees downward.
There are alot of idiot glider flyers out there. This incident was caused by a 800 hour flier who dropped his phone and tried to retreave it when we were about 500 ft agl.
Dan