Bill Daniels wrote:

BTW, How about some of our British and European friends with lots of winch
experience jumping in here?

I have done some 1500 winch launches and about 50 aerotows. Beside some
cable breaks, I can't remember any uncomfortable situation during a winch
launch. I can't tell this of the aerotows.

In Germany, winch drivers have to do at least 100 launches on 10 different
days under supervision of an experienced driver. The 10 days rule is to
ensure different weather/wind situations during the training. We expect
every pilot to get his winch driver licence. The driver will get a
replacement after some hours and normally can choose his favorite glider
after his shift.

As for unexperienced winch drivers: anything that can happen (cable breaks,
engine problems, other launch interruptions) can be and must be handled by
the pilot.

On our 1200 m strip, we normally get 350-600 m after release. On good
thermal days, this is pretty enough to get away. With students we can do
easily lots of patterns of 6-10 minutes.
Eggert