On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 11:08:01 PM UTC-4, Bill D wrote:
On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 7:34:16 PM UTC-6, Evan Ludeman wrote:



Winches are non-starters at most ops I've been involved in. We don't have the space and more space is prohibitively expensive. Existing airports in the 4500+ range are mostly asphalt, public use, high performance GA, with runway lights and traffic and not really a step up in the "nice to hang out" direction. An old but serviceable tow plane is a hell of a lot more economical than scratching a new 4500x300 airfield out of trees, rocks or farm land.





-Evan



Evan, with respect, we don't need "Negative Experts" to tell us why it won't work. We need people with the imagination to see how to make it work.



The Winching World column in the October issue of Soaring will address winch economics in detail.

Bill,

The economics of the machine were never, ever in doubt. The airport can be a problem.

Hence, the interest in existing 4500'+ runways. Around here, those are found exclusively at public use airports. We're trying to find a new home for our winch at one such, right now. There is a precedent for winch activity at the place we have in mind... but the fact of the matter is that there have been more turbine airplane ops at this airport than winch ops for several years and the tendency is always towards more signs, more lights, more rules, more acronyms and so forth. It's not a busy place. On weekends gliders out number single engine GA by a fair margin and it's a rare weekend that any jet traffic shows up while gliders are flying. It happens, but there has never been a problem.

A potential obstruction to gliding at such airports is AC 150/5300 on airport design. This document contains all sorts of "good" reasons to prohibit winching and severely restrict aero towing, and I think this may have been the basis for a whole lot of bother at Mifflin Co. in the last year or two. It's a document written with the safety of turbine airplanes in mind, period. I can "imagine" operating a winch launch operation safely at these not-so-busy airports without interfering in any way with other users (thank you very much) but it is sometimes difficult to deal "imaginatively" with some of the people that will assert themselves in charge of such airports when obstruction is on their minds. Constructive thoughts on the matter would be of interest.

Evan Ludeman