Nimbus 4DT accident 31 July 2000 in Spain.

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 18:32:35 UTC, Bruce wrote:

: We average around 26-35 launches a day. With a small club and the instructors
: doing less winching (although everyone including the CFI drives winch) this
: means that our students, and solo pilots get to do plenty of winch driving.

I reckon it takes at least ten launches, particularly on a windy day,
for a driver to get his/her hand in, and a further ten for them to be
polished. So if you use a couple of drivers a day (am/pm split, maybe)
I'm sure standards will be quite acceptable.

It's places - and I have been there - where driving the winch is seen
as an unpopular chore, so people reluctantly do two or three and then
hand over, where standards really start to slip.

I agree completely about the worth of student pilots learning to
winch, but that has to be balanced against the safety of the launching
operation generally. Incidentally, I wish more (flying) instructors
would drive winches. Many of them have some very peculiar ideas about
what the winch, and the winch driver, can and cannot do!

Ian

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