Glider accident while filming commercial in 2011. NTSB Report updated

A few weeks ago a German visitor told me that it's now unlawful in Germany
to air tow with a CG release. Four of my five gliders have had CG hooks
only and most of my launches are by air tow. Frankly I don't see the
problem (I know the physics) - simply fly the glider and who needs the
self-righting forces of a nose hook?


"Bill D" wrote in message
...
On Friday, June 21, 2013 9:49:00 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
I just started reviewing your training guide, Bill, and I must say,

"Excellent!"

Thanks for the kind word. My only objective is to promote safe winch
launch.

I'm positive that if it's done right, winch launch is far safer than aero
tow. Germans suffer one accident on average every 180,000 winch launches
while we suffer one every 24,000 aero tows. I know there are cultural
differences but, presumably, we're pretty good at aero tow and they're at
least as good at winch launch so the comparison is probably valid.

It's natural for familiar things like aero tow to seem safe and unfamiliar
things like winch launch to look unsafe but the numbers tell a different
story.

Am 22.06.2013 18:19, Dan Marotta wrote:
A few weeks ago a German visitor told me that it's now unlawful in
Germany to air tow with a CG release. Four of my five gliders have had
CG hooks only and most of my launches are by air tow. Frankly I don't
see the problem (I know the physics) - simply fly the glider and who
needs the self-righting forces of a nose hook?



This is not true. The only legal requirement for aero tows with CG hook
is that you have to have a minimum of 5 aero tows within the last 6
month. If you don't meet this criteria, you have to make these 5 aero
tows with nose hook before you are allowed to be towed on your CG hook.

Most pilots (including me, having an ASW 24 with CG hook only) do not
believe that this rule added anything towards safety in aero tow. IMHO
it's just a bureaucratic requirement, and I know of quite a few pilots
just ignoring it.
--
Peter Scholz
ASW24 JE