On Nov 22, 6:18*am, GM wrote:
On Thursday, November 22, 2012 8:58:59 AM UTC-5, kirk.stant wrote:
On Thursday, November 22, 2012 2:31:23 PM UTC+1, Karen wrote: Get with the program USA. The Germans have been doing it since the 1930's. The little UK still does more flights than we do per airport. Karen Henderson. Karen, the oUS has been doing it since the 1930s, too. And not all German clubs use a winch - I visited a nice soaring club near Aachen a week ago (they were flying everything from a DG-1000 to an open cockpit oldie) that has too short runways to consider a winch - the price of land would never make it economical. We have almost the same problem at our club here in St Louis - we own a big grass strip, perfect for aerotowing, but at 2700' just a bit too short for "get away" winching - and we have roads at both ends preventing extending much more. It's a nice option, though. Fun, too! If you can do it, go for it! But a Pawnee is a LOT more fun to drive than a winch... Kirk 66

Kirk, you may be right - there are a handfull of clubs in Germany which do not use a winch due to space constraints but out of about 900 active clubs reported by the DAeC, that is a negligble number. Tha vast majority uses winching as their main launch method due to cost reasons - mainly due to high fuel cost over there. But a Pawnee is a LOT more fun to drive than a winch...

Oh really?? Drive one lately? ;-)

Uli

Land costs

We lived on the side of a hill when we bought the winch from Fault
line Flyers in TX. We leased the 13 acres from a farmer in front of
the house. Would lob my spouse into the pattern at lunch in a vintage
2-33 w/nose hook into the pattern when the turkey vultures would
appear. He soared till sunset off an 800 ft vault, land and put his a/
c away by himself. Walk back up to the house in time for dinner.
Pretty bas One other comment about these winch addicts. Living in a
tourist town, we get pilots from the soaring world all over. Unless
they are super high time glider pilots, the Europeans win hands down
every week for working weak and low lift. 757 Capt Ingo Sturhan from
Deutschland "got off" the winch launch half way down the runway and
half way up because he knew he flew through a thermal. Circled to
12,800 ft departed east for AZ and came home 4.5 hrs later. Amazing.