On Jun 26, 10:25*am, wrote:
My understanding is that Frank Whiteley and Bill Daniels qualified a
commercial operator and several local pilots/CFIs on winch
operations somewhere in Minnesota.

Please tell me which airport and operator contact info?

Were any of you there?

Have you heard about this?

Will you consider going to a commercial operator to train and get
your winch signoff?

Note, we do winch operations with our membership at Owl Canyon
Gliderport (4CO2), Colorado Soaring Association, Wellington,
Colorado.

Best regards,

Jer/ "Flight instruction and mountain flying are my vocations!"
--
Jer/ (Slash) Eberhard, Mountain Flying Aviation, LTD, Ft Collins, CO
CELL 970 231-6325 EMAIL jer'at'frii.com *http://users.frii.net/jer/
C-206, CFII Airplane&Glider, FAA-DEN Aviation Safety Counselor
CAP-CO Mission&Aircraft CheckPilot BM218 HAM N0FZD 282 Young Eagles!

Don Ingraham has shared some pictures of the winch clinic here
http://www.crosscountrysoaring.com/welcome22.html

A video of some of the launches is here
http://www.soaringchapters.org/minnesota/mn_winch.wmv

Note that most of the recorded launches are the first, second, or
third efforts by the four others learning to drive the winch. The
videos are specifically to show the rope control after release. A
fair quartering crosswind was blowing so it often dropped to the side
a bit.

That said, when operating with runways lights, it's very useful to
have 500ft of overrun past the end lights as it's difficult to judge
the chute distance between 500-1000ft and the distance closes over the
last 500ft. Using a shorter distance may well result in snagging a
light or putting the winch tackle into the rollers or fairlead. Two
end lights were removed on the retrieve side of the runway.

That winch is well-behaved and straight forward to drive, though the
throttle handle throw was a bit long for my liking. It has very good
dual-caliper disk brakes on the drum.

Frank Whiteley