On Jul 13, 10:30*am, Del C wrote:
At 15:53 13 July 2009, bildan wrote:

Look, I didn't start this thread. *You don't have a perfect winch and
neither does anybody else. *There's a LOT of room for improvements in
every aspect of winch design. *Keep an open mind.

If you think that automatic gear changes don't matter, put a tension
logger on yours for a few launches. *The results will astonish you.

What gets my dander up is "emotional" opposition to all attempts at
innovation based on the idea that your domestic winch is 'perfect'.

Sorry to ask you this again Bill, but could you please quantify what
problems your alleged 'tension spikes' actually cause? We just don't
seem to get weak link or cable breaks associated with gearchanges. Even if
they do exist, there is enough elasticity in a 1km plus winch cable to
absorb them. As you have been told repeatedly by everyone with a decent
quality automatic gearbox winch, the gear changes are totally smooth and
imperceptible at the glider end.

And can you prove that your mega expensive superwinches will do any better
in rough conditions with a wobbly student pilot at the controls of the
glider?

Derek Copeland

This is just more rabble rousing. You know the answer, you've seen
the data from winches in your own country. Seeing tension oscillate
by 80% of the tension limits is very scary and it does lead to
problems including wire and weak link breaks. You actually begged me
once not to publish the tension charts or even mention the problem.
(I saved the e-mail in case you deny it.) I have a LOT more tension
charts - really ugly ones. You don't want me to publish them either.

All the current winches are priced within a few thousand dollars of
each other so there are no "mega expensive winches" - except they're
unfortunately all too expensive.

My agenda is simple; help build the best winches in the world without
constant and distinctly unwelcome interference from people with
nothing constructive to add. In all the years you've been posting
about winch construction, you've never added a single new idea. But
you've campaigned loudly and often against any every offered by anyone
else.

I've read every BGA publication on winch launch that's ever been
published. I've read every training BGA syllabus - and I've read ALL
your accident reports. Your accident record is far from the best.
It's in a three ring binder about 4" thick on my bookshelf. Your
stuff is OK but no better than other sources.

So, here's an offer. Stop attacking everything we do and I won't
comment about the Skylaunch. We are going to build, publicly test and
write detailed articles about our winches. I expect no derogatory
commentary from you.

We are not British Subjects and certainly not your students.