Safety of winch launch vrs. aero tow?

"Andreas Maurer" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 02 Nov 2003 15:03:18 GMT, "Bill Daniels"
wrote:


There does seem to be a condition experienced by some people who find it
hard to make fast mental adjustments from one set of conditions to
another.
One moment they are setting on the ground and 35 seconds later then are
high
in the sky at the controls of a glider and struggling to cope. The rush
of
a winch launch may create a sensory overload beyond their ability to
manage.

Hmmm... I never saw this during a winch launch yet. The work load
during a winch launch is very low compared to an aerotow - the only
thing you really need to watch is airspeed and the "bang" of a rope
break.

The situation you describe (when the pilot gets behind the plane)
happens much more often during very low maneuvering (like low
approaches) - suddenly pilot looses track of airspeed and stalls, for
example (just as the clip I posted shows).



Bye
Andreas

It's probably because you and your friends are accustomed to winch launch as
a normal way to get gliders into the air. In the USA, winch launch is still
a novelty for most glider pilots. I very much agree that the workload is
far less during a winch launch as compared to airtow, but the sensations are
quite novel for the uninitiated.

I once gave a 747 captain his first glider ride on a winch. After release,
I asked him what he thought of the launch. His answer, "I have no idea what
just happened" - "I have never felt so far behind an aircraft".

Bill Daniels