Fatal Aerotow 'Kiting' Tow Plane Saratoga Springs NY 26 May 2026

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]A fatal tow plane crash in Saratoga Springs, New York, reminds us of the hazard of kiting the tow plane during glider towing operations. My name is Juan Brown. You're watching the Blanco channel. Let me explain. Glider Aero tow operations are conducted safely throughout the world every day. Getting your glider or sail plane rating. I can't emphasize this enough how important and how good it is to get your sail plane rating, especially if you're first starting out in flying. Nothing teaches you energy management, stick and rudder skills, and basic formation flying skills like that of learning to fly in a sail plane. The Aerotto is basically a formation takeoff, 200 foot trail formation takeoff. The tow rope is 200 feet. The tow rope is designed to break away. It has a couple of breakaway points if too much stress is put onto the rope. And the idea is to take off behind the uh the toe plane slightly above the wake of the toe plane. And then right away they teach you how to box the wake of the toe plane and stay in proper formation behind the toe plane. Under no circumstances are you to rise above the toe plane. And if you rise above 20 ft above the tow plane, somebody's got to cut the hook on you.

[00:01:20]Both aircraft have releases. Both obviously the glider has his normal release and the toe plane has an emergency release as well. As soon as something gets out of hand, it's time to pull that rope. And this is a normal toe operation here with the sail plane keeping just above the wake of the power plane.

[00:01:48]Following them around in trail formation, keeping the line tight.

[00:02:00]Starting first with the Aviation Safety Network. This accident occurred on Tuesday the 26th of May. A Piper PA25-235 Pawne C that's powered by the Lycoming '0540 engine. A very popular. It's a 1969 model aircraft and it's a very popular glider towing machine. One fatality, one occupant on board.

[00:02:22]Saratoga County Airport, Saratoga Springs, New York. The Piper PA25 was destroyed. It was November 8656 Lima was destroyed when impacted the runway surface and a postc crash fire ensued.

[00:02:36]The FAA reported the glider pitched up on departure causing the aircraft to nose over. This is commonly referred to as a glider toe upset or in the vernacular in the glider business it's called kiting the toe plane. Back in May of 2020 the same thing happened right here in Byron California when a glider kited a Blanka Satabria toe plane killing the pilot. This is the video from the NTSB public docket. Viewer discretion advised of the Byron accident. So the glider climbs way above the toe plane.

[00:03:14]The toe plane loses energy. Nobody releases the rope in time and eventually causes the toe plane to nose in before the rope is finally broken or released and the glider is able to make it back to the runway. Unfortunately, the tow plane pilot was fatally injured.

[00:03:37]A quick review of the glider flying handbook on this subject.

[00:03:41]Investigators will be looking at the tow hook release mechanism on the tow plane and the glider itself. These release mechanisms usually come in two varieties here in the states. Either the Schwitzer tow hook system or the tossed or toast uh release mechanism. And here's the different connecting ring schwitzer versus toast. Here the tow rope's 200 ft long. Your forward motion on the toe is about 100 ft per second. So you've got about a two second reaction time between when the glider does something and the reaction to the toe plane. And it is possible in extremely rare cases to get the toe to get the glider in such a position with the toe plane where the toe plane may be unable to release his release mechanism. And this is some of the things investigators will have to look at. And here in chapter 12, they talk about this exact emergency on toe.

[00:04:36]Glider climbs excessively high during takeoff. The tail of the tow plane may be lifted if the glider climbs excessively high during takeoff. Should this happen, the application of full up elevator on the tow plane may not be sufficient to prevent an accident. The toe pilot must be ready to pull the release in order to regain control of the toe plane. As a rule rule of thumb, with a 200 foot tow line, that would require the glider to climb over 20 feet above the altitude of the toe plane to present a danger of an upset. If at any time the nose of the toe plane is pulled uncontrollably by the glider to a dangerously higher low pitch attitude, pull the release.

[00:05:13]If a Schweitzer toe hitch is being used, it is possible for the release mechanism to become jammed due to the excessively high position of the glider.

[00:05:25]Ultimately, like any formation flying, it's two's job to be there to maintain position. So ultimately, it's up to two or in this case, the glider to release the mechanism if he's getting out of control with the tow plane.

[00:05:44]If the sail plane fails to uphold his end of the deal, it's up to the toe pilot to release the sail plane.

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