Tragic accident.
Hoosten (#12) said: "Yet another aircraft taken out but a glider/tug. It's a real smart move having these clowns operating in the circuit areas of high traffic density aerodromes. The bloke in the Jab a very experienced ex-airline pilot."
Shame on you! Nasty troll.
Unfortunate nasty tripe peddled by someone who doesn't know anything about mixed ops (given the content of his message).
I hold a PPL, I also hold a glider towing rating (flying the PA-25), and am a glider pilot and former level 2 instructor. The gliding club I am at has airline pilots as tow-pilots and glider pilots and instructors. Accusation of cowboys can be levelled at GA too, look through the ATSB reports.
Gliding clubs will operate on the CTAF for launching and CCT ops. and use directed see and avoid like everybody else. At busy gliding clubs, ops are particularly disciplined.
Slagging off the Pawnee driver is not helpful. It doesn't matter if the Jab pilot was ex airlines.
If the Pawnee was landing aircraft, normally he had right of way, over an aircraft taking off, all things being equal. A tow pilot would go around if the available runway was not clear for whatever reason.
It maybe a case of each aircraft being in each other's blind spots, radio over transmission, misunderstood radio message, whatever.
Nevertheless, the factors surrounding this terrible accident no doubt will emerge.
Do not condemn, learn...
RIP to the souls lost.