On a very still day the gliders up to DG1000Ts were being accelerated by
the Skylaunch winch from zero to lift off speed (50-60mph) in about 3
seconds, which is little slower than Bill claims for his US superwinch.
Any faster than this can be dangerous for some types of glider, because it
can cause excessive pitch up rates. Excessive acceleration can also bang
down the tails of those gliders that set on their nose wheels or skids
pretty hard onto the ground, with a risk of structural damage!

Derek Copeland

At 18:31 19 July 2009, johngalloway wrote:
On 19 July, 16:54, bildan wrote:
On Jul 19, 4:30=A0am, Derek Copeland wrote:

Just to emphasize John's point about a properly set up automatic
gearbo=
x
giving smooth and imperceptible gear changes during a winch launch,
see=
if
you can hear the gearchanges in this video of a new Skylaunch winch
in
action at Lasham?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DriqhzcXZqzg

Derek Copeland

Opening the throttle like a little old lady will mask shifts on any
transmission. =A0This obviously depends a great deal on the winch
operator opening the throttle very gingerly.

Bill,

You seem to have difficulty coping with the fact that whatever
preconceived idea comes into you mind is not necessarily a fact.

The fact is that