On Saturday, February 23, 2013 7:57:46 PM UTC-7, Tony V wrote:
On 2/23/2013 12:49 AM, GM wrote:

.. [winch] ...climb angles of 40deg+, .......



I used to say that too... and then I did the math. It's only your *deck

angle*, with respect to the horizon that is 40+ degrees. Assuming that

your launch height is about 1/3 of your cable length, that comes out to

an average climb angle of about 19 degrees, unfortunately.



Tony

Tony, I assure you GM has done the math and his numbers are correct. With a rope tension equal to the glider's weight, the max climb angle will be 45 degrees - that's just how the math works out.

Old winches launching sub-30:1 gliders don't get this performance but the powerful new winches launching higher performance gliders do.