The old adages about pitch and power are dead true.
For sim training, I always made sure that transitioning students could takeoff in low vis, suffer a TOTAL pitot static failure during the takeoff rotation (including everything I could fail from the back relating to speed and height and slope information). Requirement, without any assistance or prompting from me, was for the student to get him/herself around to a landing via a low minima ILS.
All done on the A/H with known power for the configuration to achieve a flight performance (speed and climb/descent).
The only difference for a lightie is that, if you don't have an A/H you need to be visual for attitude. I'm sure we were all taught to fly initially by matching the desired window picture to the horizon ?
The first time it's a tad anxiety producing but after a couple of goes just another walk in the park.
If you haven't done a flight with the LHS clocks U/S (it's a bit silly for the instructor or safety pilot to fail his side clocks) it is a useful (I would say essential) training exercise and might just save your neck one day in the future. Likewise a few under the hood circuits are excellent training value .. 0/0 landings being talked down by the other pilot is an interesting exercise for the first couple of circuits.
Most of the story is in the thread -
the wind noise gave a good indication of airspeed
"Wind in the wires" goes back to WW1 times. As an anecdote, a strategic bomber was on test with a mod on the side. Unpredicted and undetected problem was that the PEC was thrown to the winds. Picked up on takeoff roll by the TP who recognised the mismatch of sounds and ASI reading.
Most power planes have an "alternate static" just for this kind of situations, usually a valve which vents the static tube into the cockpit. (Unpressurized aircraft only of course.)
All certificated aircraft should have an alternate static source - Boeings etc, included.
A postit is very handy to cover something that's misbehaving
Absolutely - even lick the back of a sheet of paper and it will stick onto glass reasonably well .. and enough for the purpose.
What are the options for aborting a tug launch when the glider pilot sees something he doesn't like?
Tug pilot should release and then judge his recovery to minimise the risk of the glider overrunning the tug. Becomes a problem if the problem occurs just after liftoff .. in this case most of us would hang on until we had the glider into a position where a release wasn't going to cause him/her too much anxiety. If the glider pilot doesn't like how things are progressing he/she can pull the bung as an alternative. The only time I had this sort of situation happen was following the glider's failed attempt to release .. in the subsequent turn, he put me into a low level spin and we both released .. losing the cable in the process. My concerns at the time were more with the leaves and branches in my field of view rather than the glider.