(Stefan wrote)
There are many different kind of winches, from low-end homebuilt diesel
winches to commercial high-tech electro winches. The most complete
overview I know is
http://www.skylaunch.de/album/index.html

And then there's the ever funny movie
http://www.motorflug.de/movies/glider.mpg
which shows a winch in action. (Caution: 11 MB, but worth every bit.)

Leave it to the Germans to come up with a myriad of mechanized solutions
:-)

I'm loading the movie now
("I like to watch." Mmm...DSL)

--
Montblack