Don't know how life is in Germany now since I haven't
lived there since 1986 :-(, but back then, not only
did the kids in the club have fun flying and getting
launched by the winch, but they also got to operate
The Lepo! I think you had to be 18 years old to get
a drivers license, so the folks who wanted to drive
but were too young, would jump at the chance to drive
The Lepo. We never lacked volunteer Lepo drivers.

Okay, what is 'The Lepo?' :-)

Even though I had my license, I enjoyed driving The
Lepo, too. Our Lepos were an Opel of some type (of
course) plus a Ford Taunus.

Now, based at a public airport with a 5,000 foot paved
runway and about 400 feet of grass overrun on one end
and maybe 100 feet of grass overrun at the other end,
I just wonder how we could get a winch and how we could
convince the airport management to allow us to use
it. And where would we get a 'proper Lepo?' :-)

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA


At 00:54 16 August 2007, Mike Schumann wrote:
I suspect that what hooked her was the winch launch.
The same thing
happened to me while visiting Germany. Glider pilots
who have never
experienced a winch launch have no idea how much fun
the launch itself is.
Pulling 2 Gs and gaining 1,000 ft in 40 seconds is
how you get kids'
attention. The fact that it is MUCH cheaper, makes
it possible for them to
come back on a regular basis.

Mike Schumann