In article Don Johnstone writes:
At 18:51 14 July 2009, tommytoyz wrote:
No this thread is what we in the USA need to focus on - how to get
launched as cheaply as possible - as close to $0.00 as possible. Not
the $40-60 launches. That stops me cold from flying so many times,
even when my pockets are brimming with cash. Something seems wrong
about that.


My opinion is if the commercial operators just refuse, the clubs
should do it themselves, as is mostly done in Europe. For that, a
suitable site is needed, which is the stumbling block as much as the
winch is - if not more so.

In Northern California, one club uses federal land as their site,
managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to operate from. That
would be the preferred way to go in many ways to site a glider
operation that uses winch launches - not an existing airport as that
will almost always be prohibited by the owners.
Tom


The major difference between the UK and the USA is that with the exception
of the Armed Services Gliding Clubs almost no gliding club operates from an
established airport.
In the case of my club, and many others, we own an Ex Mighty Eighth
airfield. Many clubs use greenfield sites that they have developed
themselves so winching for us is easy. We do allow powered aircraft to
operate from our airfield with rules to ensure de-confliction.

Any flattish field will do, at a flat site a run length of 3 times the
proposed cable length is about right. On hill sites the cable length can
be very much shorter.

Find a co-operative farmer and trial it. Even better if you can find a
field at the bottom or top of a hill which has a nice ridge facing the
prevailing wind, normally avoided by normal airport planners, you can
launch into lift for virtually nothing. If you get the right hill you can
even bungey launch off it.


I would have thought that the UK would have licensing requirements for airports,
as many states here do. Before spending the money for the necessary improvements
one would want to make sure that the start of activity would not be followed by
a cease and desist order from the local or state government.

Similarly, I would want to make very certain that the activity had appropriate
insurance coverage; the insurance company will also most likely want to see proof
of appropriate licensing.

Getting approval would require finding an area where the potential neighbors
would not be at local council meetings objecting to the activity and expressing
their fear of these powerless aircraft plummeting into their houses.

The cost would be substantial. I don't know the width requirement to have
parking for aircrafts and cars as well as buildings/hangars, along with safe
space for the rope/cable to fall after release (and hopefully some safe places
for low releases to go), but if one were to guess 300 feet wide (probably too
small) by 6000 feet long (for a 2000 foot cable), it comes out to over 41
acres.

I don't know how far from population centers one would have to go for this,
but it would not work near here -- the land is just way too costly.


Power pilots are very concerned about the closure of airports due to pressure
from communities building up around them, and several are lost each year. Creating
and opening replacements is just astoundingly difficult.


Alan