Lister Noble, not me! All my frights have been real ones!
The two most serious were my fault, due to impatience and showing off.
Number 1. Impatient, waiting for the 2 pilots in the K13 to pull their finger out, and for the wingtip holder and retrieve vehicles to get on with it, took off with a jerk, and then wondered why the rate of climb was much worse than usual.....glanced at the instruments,no problem there, engine sounded fine. Looked in the rear view mirror of the Tug and realised that the K13 had the airbrakes full open on tow!...and my airplane only a Supercub 150! Only just managed to scrape over the hill with speed down to 45 knots, didn't dare to signal to the glider with the recommended rudder wag, for obvious reasons. Climbed, barely, to 300' and then, because I was so scared, I dumped the glider. Landed back. The glider did NOT land back....they ended up in the valley, complete with towrope and brakes still unnoticed and open! No damage, nobody hurt.
Number 2. Impatient again, this time with a gallery of spectators, took up slack when the wingtip holder, who was an Instructor, signaled to proceed.
So I trusted him and didn't look at the Winch Launchpoint. As it was a light glider on tow, I climbed straight out, instead of the usual right turn toward an open track. And then saw the parachute on the descending winch cable not 20 feet away from my right wingtip. I didn't want to return. I just wanted to leave altogether and never come back. But towed the Libelle to 2,000' and came back to face the music. The CFI nearly had a heart attack watching the close call. As did everybody else who knew enough to realise what was nearly happening...
We've made some changes; radio is used. Though it might not be reached in time. And Tug Pilots are warned sternly never never never takeoff without a Good Look at the Winch Launchpoint. Trust NOBODY. LOOKOUT, LOOKOUT, LOOKOUT!