TAKE NOT NOW FOR AN ANSWER

We must never oblige tow pilots to fly when they have compelling reasons not to. Perhaps atmospheric conditions are too hazardous for their skill level or yours - or either aircraft. Think about it, an aviator of great experience and skill is more apt to decline than some yokel who doesn’t know better! Or what if they’re already exhausted from a long hard day of repetitive ups and downs and one more ‘last’ tow could become their very last? What’s really most important after all?The day I learned this lesson was one of the wildest on which I have flown. It promised terrific ridge lift if we could manage takeoff and landing in a direct gusting crosswind. When the tow pilot correctly insisted it was too wild I acted out a tedious show of discontent. This was not to be a commercial or instructional flight, just me going solo, which made my petulance even more bush.For an hour we sat there glaring at each other under the rattling roof of our line shack until he relented. His few curt words I hardly heard, but his eyes said, ‘You think we should to risk my health, my family’s livelihood and our only tow plane so you can have some fun… Okay, let’s get it over with.’I was callous enough to accept his surrender - that time - but will never be again. The crosswind was so strong I had to hold my windward wing on the grass throughout our whole takeoff run (and the rollout after landing). From aloft, I watched him fly a missed approach before landing cross-wise to the strip. After tying down the aircraft he was responsible for, he got in his car and scrammed so as to not be there when I’d need help securing mine.As if to cement the lesson, turbulence on that flight was so punishing it amounted to an exercise in survival, not sport. No fun at all! In tens of thousands of flights, this was the only one entirely permeated with guilt and regret from beginning to… long after the end.Next morning I told that good fellow I would never again insist on launching when a tow pilot disagreed, whatever the reason. He nodded ironic assent, but judging from his manner if not for this apology I might have lost all his respect.Could I ever earn some back?