Our club has about 40 members, and about 5 tow pilots. Given that all 40
regular members could be trained as winch operators, my gut feeling is that
it would be a lot easier to get winch drivers than tow pilots on a daily
basis.

Mike Schumann

"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
"Mike Schumann" wrote:

From what I have seen, I doubt that winch launches require more people
than
air tow. One of the biggest problems we have with air tow is finding tow
pilots who have the necessary hours in type to meet insurance
requirements.

I agree, that is a problem.

I suspect that it would be much easier for your typical club to train and
line up qualified winch operators than finding tow pilots.

For a club, particularly one with some members already
trained and comfortable with winch launches, you are
probably right, but at least with aerotowing, you get pilots
volunteering just because they like to fly, but don't want
to pay for it. Is running the winch considered to be a
desirable job similar to flying the tug?

T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
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