I agree with Andreas Maurer that 70 knots is a bit
too fast for winch launching a K21. However flying
a normal launch profile, where the stick is just back
from centre for the full climb,gave a perfect 65 knots
launch on the Skylaunch. I tried pulling back harder
and then easing forward just to see what would happen,
as some people in the winching world seem to believe
that the airspeed should be controlled by the pilot
changing the pitch angle. I found you could vary the
speed by about 5 knots either way, but I can't really
see the point of doing this, as it only gives you poorer
launches than flying at the optimum speed!

BTW, everyone I have spoken to has been very impressed
by the Skylaunch 2 Winch.

Del Copeland

At 23:42 19 December 2007, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On 19 Dec 2007 22:04:13 GMT, Del C
wrote:

Even better, buy a Skylaunch 2 Winch with adjustable
throttle stops for glider type and wind direction.

Hi Derek,

sound pretty good - and as close to the KISS principle
as it gets.


Just one annotation:
I regard 70 kts for an ASK-21 as a little on the too-fast
side (it
will break the weak link if you pull back too much
at this speed) - do
you always tow that fast?

Bye
Andreas