(Mark James Boyd) wrote in message news:41818652$1@darkstar...
Steve Hill wrote:

I'd really like to see what the actual costs are for a club to purchase a
good winch.

The "street" has spoken. There are NO winches in California.
And the ones I researched that were closest were in Arizona or
Washington, and aren't getting anywhere even remotely close to
50 launches a day.

I haven't been to Washington yet, but I have talked to the club there
and they were closed for a good part of last winter (0 launches).

Would a winch in CA do well? I dunno. At Avenal, there are
days when it would be fine, but then again there are
a lot of days or times of the day when a higher tow or further
away is better. And of course I've had 4 aero-retrieves.
Try that with a winch


The Prescott (AZ) Soaring Club does well with their winch, apparently.
Down here where I usually fly at Turf (just west of Phoenix), we
rarely aerotow higher than 1500', I think my usual release altitude is
about 1200' just off the end of the runway into the house thermal -
ideal for a winch! Of course, this makes for a pretty quick cycle
time with a couple of Pawnees, and we would really need a double or
triple drum setup to get a race grid off rapidly, but it sure would be
fun to watch!

Kirk
66