At 19:42 03 July 2005, Ian Johnston wrote:

I reckon it takes at least ten launches, particularly
on a windy day,
for a driver to get his/her hand in, and a further
ten for them to be
polished.

What?? 20 Launches to get to a 'polished' standard!
(on each day, is this?) Jesus, you have cr*p winch
drivers, or cr*p winch instructors! So this is what
you reckon Ian? Are you winch driver?

So if you use a couple of drivers a day (am/pm split,
maybe)
I'm sure standards will be quite acceptable.
It's places - and I have been there - where driving
the winch is seen
as an unpopular chore, so people reluctantly do two
or three and then
hand over, where standards really start to slip.

Good winch training, makes good winch drivers, just
like flying training, if some winch driver does 10
bad launches, 'to get his/her eye in', I think he would
be on re-training or very poor! (after buying a round
of drinks for everyone he gave a cr*p launch to).

Even our less experienced winch drivers, generally
only take two launches to get their eye in, after good
feedback from the pilots.

I will send you one of our 70+ year old winch drivers
to you (before they get stopped by insurance companies,
EU directives, lack of binoculars, party poopers........)
I'm sure you need them.

Hopefully you have exaggerated the number of launches.
lol

Dave