On Thu, 21 Jul 2016 10:30:00 +0000, Peter Higgs wrote:

That is quite true, except with the winch you have the full runway
length of rope between winch and glider.

With the Car, you can only start with half that distance from car to
glider.

That assumes the end of the rope is anchored at the launch point, which
looks like a worst case scenario. If the anchor is somewhere along the
runway, in theory at least, you can do a lot better. Putting the anchor
at the midpoint with the car starting at the 3/4 mark should launch to a
height of half the rope length. However, this is all theoretical because
I've never done an auto-tow or seen it done: most of my flying is done
from a winch.

So, here are some questions for those who have used the 2:1 auto-tow
system. I'd enjoy seeing the answers as they'd help me get my head around
how the system works in practise:

- where is the stationary end of the rope anchored along the runway?
- what ratio of launch height:rope length is usual on a calm day?
- on a windy day?
- does the glider ever tend to lift the rear of the tow vehicle,
allowing wheel spin, etc?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |