Long grass or other vegetatation, and rough surfaces of any
kind can make ground loop or cartwheel type winching accidents
more likely. Small wingtip wheels are probably more likely to
snag in grass than skids.

BTW, UK winch launches using modern high powered winches
give the much the same acceleration as German or anybody
else's winch launches. 0-50 knots in about 3 seconds to give
almost immediate aileron control. Any faster than this produces
additional problems, particularly tail-banging, dangerous over-
rotation with the risk of a stall/spin, and pilots sliding back in
sailplane types with very reclining seats. N.B. always do your
straps up as tightly as possible for winch launching.

Derek Copeland

At 23:44 09 October 2013, Dan Marotta wrote:
My LAK-17a has wheels like the first picture in this link:
http://www.williamssoaring.com/catal...ane-parts.html

They work great on pavement, but are useless on grass.


"Soartech" wrote in message
news:facbc642-bebd-4794-a53b-
...
JC wrote:
The answer: either retractable or disposable pogo sticks on
the
wingtips,
or mid-wing. Something that keeps the wings level to 25
mph and then
either drops off or retracts into the wing.

Along this line, many self-launchers have small in-line skate
wheels on
the wingtips so they can start with the wing already touching
the runway.

Perhaps a simple retrofit could save your gel-coat (or your
life).
As for dropable pogo sticks, hang gliders that aerotow often
use a 3
wheeled launch cart(with a wide stance)to keep the wing
level until it
flies away from the cart. No one wants to lift their sailplane
into a
cart
so this won't work for us. :-)