On Thu, 09 Jan 2014 07:22:46 -0800, son_of_flubber wrote:

Here is something completely new to me: Paragliders set up temporary
winch sites in interesting places.

Its not that 'interesting'. The winch is at the end of a narrow grass
strip extending from a hang glider field, i.e. its a place where its
probably common to find an operating winch and I wouldn't be surprised to
find that the grass strip is a microlite runway.

I don't know Swedish regs, but in the UK you can't winch, bungee or
autotow to more than 60m unless the site is NOTAMed or (for a permanent
winch site) marked as a winch site on the air navigation maps. There are
UK glider pilots who want round and bungee off suitable hills but those
doing it are, AFAIK, careful not to break that 60m limit. The latest S&G
has a good article about doing it and emphasises that limit, but of
course the object of bungeeing off a hill is airspeed rather than height
gain.

I should add having our field marking in maps as 'cables to 3000ft' does
precious little: we still have GA and helis blundering over the field
below that height, evidently with little idea of where they are and/or
not having looked at the chart in recent years.

One of the comments in the second quoted URL about electronic maps,
including Sky Demon, not showing marked winching glider sites at some
zoom levels or at all is quite worrying. One wonders how they got
approved.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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