On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 22:14:27 UTC, Dave Ruttle
wrote:

At 19:42 03 July 2005, Ian Johnston wrote:

I reckon it takes at least ten launches, particularly
on a windy day,
for a driver to get his/her hand in, and a further
ten for them to be
polished.

What?? 20 Launches to get to a 'polished' standard!
(on each day, is this?) Jesus, you have cr*p winch
drivers, or cr*p winch instructors! So this is what
you reckon Ian? Are you winch driver?

I'm a winch driver and a winch instructor. And yes, if it's a windy
day, and you're launching a mixture glass and wood, single and two
seater, I stand completely by what I wrote. Ten or so launches to do
it reasonably well, twenty to be giving bang on, optimum speed,
perfect height launches every time.

Of course it's possible to do some sort of launch without taking much
care over it. If you don't fly at a club which takes winch driving
seriously you probably don't know how good it can be.

Good winch training, makes good winch drivers, just
like flying training, if some winch driver does 10
bad launches, 'to get his/her eye in', I think he would
be on re-training or very poor! (after buying a round
of drinks for everyone he gave a cr*p launch to).

I didn't write "crap launch" and I didn't mean "crap" launch.

And just as with pilots, training is only the beginning. It's
practice, practice, practice after that. I'm certainly not claiming
that it's rocket science, but it is something that can be done
adequately or much better.

In case you were wondering, I am a complete sod to winch drivers when
I'm flying. I pull off for overspeeds without a second's hesitation
(many/most pilots just accept them: they shouldn't) and I don't take
underspeeds either. I invariably refuse to pay for aborted launches,
and when one winch driver told me I should have pulled back (ten feet
in the air) to accelerate I formally complained to his club's safety
officer about his competence and attitude.

Even our less experienced winch drivers, generally
only take two launches to get their eye in, after good
feedback from the pilots.

If you are happy with those standards, fine.

Ian