I heard on grapevine an ASK 21 at Beverley were doing practice hook up procedure and tow rope went behind wing and sliced in a fair way into the rear of the wing. Gather the rope broke near the tug but the weak link did not break which I find strange.
25 years ago I had the experience of loosing it a bit during a boxing or hookup practice and as pilots in the glider we did not have to think as the weak link broke and we had rope all over out wing and behind. I was a bit worried about landing with all that rope but luckily I was able to reach out the LH window and grab the rope and then proceeded to pull all of it into back seat with me and land safely. Another time on a tow retrieve the tow pilot (not really a glider pilot) decided to decent because of cloud ahead. Needless to say the loop was huge and rope broke at weak link. Such "really not glider pilot" tow pilots must learn to descend REAL slow and ideally warn the glider pilot so he can use airbrake. I think it would be a good idea if such tow pilots were to learn from the glider end what is like when the tow pilot decides to decent on tow I have always looked on weak links as the fuse in the system. Does anybody know what happened in WA? Ian McPhee
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