On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 20:06:57 -0800, son_of_flubber wrote:

I've never driven the winch, but I've sat in the cab and watched an
international cadre of winching masters practice their art. At the two
sites that I've done winch launches, operations continued in significant
crosswind. Crosswinds seem to be less of a no-go with modern winches.

On sites with severe cross-wind there's always the parachuteless option.
I've seen (and flown with) this setup at The Mynd,

The Mynd is on top of a long, steep north-south ridge with the runway
parallel to the ridge and close behind the soaring slope. Beyond the
runway there's an additional small rise with a valley containing moorland
and trees. When the ridge is working, launches and landings are flown in
a 90 degree cross-wind. Obviously they can't use a parachute on the
launch cable because, when the ridge is working well, the end of the
cable would end up over the hill and probably in the downwind forest: the
airfield is 250m across at its widest and scrub and trees start 100m
downwind of its lee edge.

They use a single drum winch with no parachute and the retrieval winch at
the launch point: the main cable ends in a metal triangle with the
retrieval cable on one corner and the shock rope and strop on the other.
No parachute.

During the launch a light cable streams off the small retrieval winch.
When the glider releases, the main winch is put in neutral and the
retrieval winch engages, causing the cable to snap down onto the main
runway, and shortly after that, its business end is back at the
launchpoint ready for the next launch. The two winch drivers co-ordinate
agreement about who is in gear and when by radio.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org