Safety of winch launch vrs. aero tow?

In article , F.L. Whiteley
writes
There once was a non-BGA soaring site/club in East Anglia in the UK. The
operator was named Fred, but the surname escapes me and I believe he passed
away in the 1980's. By all accounts he operated a steam winch though I
never met him nor saw it in action. I believe that operation was dwindling
and may have ceased operations about 1980. Any stories out there?

Frank Whiteley

In the 60s there was an instructor at the Midland GC who had the idea of
building a steam winch.

Because the Long Mynd is largely peat, we thought we might use the
terrain as a fuel source.

The project never got off the ground; we never got any steam driven,
Mynd fuelled launches.


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Mike Lindsay
n