From what I have seen, I doubt that winch launches require more people than
air tow. One of the biggest problems we have with air tow is finding tow
pilots who have the necessary hours in type to meet insurance requirements.
I suspect that it would be much easier for your typical club to train and
line up qualified winch operators than finding tow pilots.

Mike Schumann

"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
Mike I Green wrote:

It is too bad that so many influential pilots in the US have been
knocking winch towing for such a long time.

I've been flying since the early '70's and I've met a lot of
glider pilots. I can't really think of any influential
pilots who have been knocking winch launching. I know of
many who've experienced it in Europe and think it would be
a great way to decrease the cost of launching, but something
always prevents it. That "something" may be lack of
experience with winches in the U.S., lack of available
winches or the cost of a good one, the difficulty of mixing
with non-glider traffic, etc.

As far as I can see, the successful U.S. winch operations
seem to mostly be clubs who own/control their own field and
have sufficient available labor to support winch launches or
clubs on large open airports (former WWII airfields etc.)
where there's plenty of space. Those favorable conditions
just aren't that common. When you add concerns about
startup expense and lack of familiarity of U.S. pilots, you
can understand why winch launching is hard to get started
here.

T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)