On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 08:54:18 -0600, "Bill Daniels"
wrote:

It is very important to point out that almost all the cable breaks were
using the old steel wire. The new Dyneema winch cables rarely break. The
last I heard, Aero Club Landau in Germany had more than 4000 launches on
their 'plastic' cable without a single break. ACL is also getting more than
1200 meters AGL with their winch launches.

Flying on the same airfield as the Landau Aero Club, I'd like to add a
few comments:
- There have been lots of cable breaks with Dyneema ropes now (also of
other Dyneema cable users - these plastic cables are used by many
clubs in Germany now). At the moment my club is not sure if the
Dyneema cable is really cheaper to operate than steel cable on the
long run.
- The number of flights that reached more than 1.000 meters can be
counted on one hand, and required to place glider and winch in areas
that were far away from any runway...





Bye
Andreas