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Old March 24th 09, 04:48 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
bildan
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Posts: 646
Default Winch Launch Safety Study

On Mar 20, 7:00*am, Derek Copeland wrote:
As I have tried to explain to Bill on numerous occasions, and on various
forums, the uncontrollable over-rotation you get from an over-powered
winch launch is caused by the pull line to the belly hook being below the
glider's centre of gravity and centre of pressure. This causes a rotation
for mechanical rather than aerodynamic control reasons. This is why high
winged gliders, such as the K6 and K8 are most at risk.


I understand this exactly and have wrote about it for many years.
Almost all gliders currently in use have no risk at all of
"mechanical" over-rotation. Does a G103 have "Uncontrollable Over-
rotation"?

The "Over powered" launches you speak of are strictly limited by the
weak link to slightly over one G which is a trivial value. Nothing
violent happens at one G unless the pilot initiates it.