This should make most power pilots have kittens...

Don Tuite wrote:
Ok I'm trying to visualize a winch sucking up cable at 88 feet/second
(60 mph) and 2000 feet of cable accelerating toward the ground at 32
ft/sec^2. And I'm thinking of my experience fishing with cheap
bait-casting reels. Does it ever get interesting?

you bet. Cable breaks are something quite interesting to start
with (especially if you were tempted to pull to a steep climb
too early -- 45 degrees nose up, no engine, and low, is
what I'd called interesting); that's why it is a part of the
training which is emphasized; I have known of accidents that
involved bad ground handling as well: in a place with a multiple
drums winch: only one cable winched at a time, but multiple
cables can be made ready to increase the rate of launches; the
guy I knew got into trouble when the cable he used got
entangled with another cable laying on the ground...

--Sylvain