Yep, it's just not the same when you can match the displacement of an
entire European car engine with the displacement of just 2, maybe 3,
cylinders worth of an American big block motor......

tango4 wrote:

You have to remember folks that these are American horsepower units. About
2:1 is a good ratio against proper European horses!

:-)

Ian

"Kevin Neave" wrote in message
...

Bill,

I think you need to revisit your numbers.

Here at Nympsfield (UK) we have a Supacat winch with
a 250 horse Diesel that easily provides enough power
for the biggest gliders on site (DG505, DuoDT, Nimbus3DT)
(And pretty scary in a Libelle if the winch driver
is *over enthusiastic*)

The previous engine was 180 HP, this was a bit marginal
for the Heavy Glass, but more than enough for any single
seat

(We have a 1000m field & regularly get 1500', even
nil wind)

:-)

KN

At 15:36 19 March 2004, Bill Daniels wrote:

Mark, unfortunately, the physics of a winch launch
says that it takes about
1 kWh or 3,600,000 Joules to launch a glider. The
peak power demand places
yet another constraint on the minimum HP that must
be available. Those
numbers point to a 400 to 500 HP engine to be able
to provide launch service
to any glider in the existing fleet.