Bert Willing wrote:
Why ?! Did that on a regular basis (both 25m and ballasted ships), didn't
see any inconvenience.

"Bruce Greef" wrote in message
...

If you are flying an open class ship or heavily ballasted racer the winch
is not such a good idea.

Bruce



OK need to qualify that - in the event of cable breaks. You do have to consider
the field when considering whether it is safe to launch any particular glider.
There needs to be enough space to run out on an aborted take off, and the field
needs to be big/long enough that you avoid a launch where there is a part of the
climb with no good options. On our strip, which has a very rough and narrow mid
section there is a part of the launch where you would be too low to make the
nearby tar runway, and too high to stop on the reasonable part of the runway. I
know the solution is to fix the glorified cow paddock we fly from, but getting
glider pilots to spend money on non flying stuff is difficult.
Similarly it does require some skill to manage the extra energy with the big
gliders in the event of a cable break, or abort for whatever reason. With
experience on the part of the pilot and winch driver, this is less of an issue.

So - if the field is safe for the extra energy involved in this, and your winch
is powerful enough winching is no problem. It is quite a sight to watch
something like an ASH25 winch launching - and perfectly OK. There are many clubs
that do this all the time.