On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:34:33 -0700, "Bill Daniels"
bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:

Actually guys, you CAN and SHOULD control airspeed on some winches. There
are few winches that have enough power to prevent a large, heavy glider from
pulling down the drum RPM. Maybe you guys have one - maybe not.

If you are a little too fast, pitch up, load the winch a little and wait to
see what the airspeed does. In most cases, it will ease back down to the
desired airspeed. If you are a bit slow, lower the nose which unloads the
winch a bit and wait for the effect. Once you get the hang of it, it works
sweet.

Many pilots think this won't work becasue they haven't tried it. Give it a
try and get back to us.

Hi Bill,

I'm giving this a try since over 20 years and I have to admit that the
influence of pitch attitude on airspeed is negligible with out 280 hp
turbo-diesel winch (even with gliders like ASK-21 and DG-505).

On the other hand - I seldom have the need to control airspeed anyway.
Anything between 90 and 120 kp/h is perfectly ok - if I'm faster or
slower, I decrease pitch attitude. As simple as it gets.


Cheers
Andreas


p.s.:
I think it's usually the response of the winch driver that results in
an airspeed increase: If the winch driver notices a sudden
pitch-decrease (or an abnormal low pitch) of the gilder, he assumes
that the gider is too slow and adds power.
We don't have (and don't need) a voice communication between glider
and winch.







Bye
Andreas