Winch Launch Safety Study

The article says that the older gasoline powered winches with
automatic transmissions are tension controlled types, or at least
allow themselves to be controlled that way. I'm not familiar with
transmissions to know either way, just citing what the article says.

They go on to recommend that the existing electric ones and the
Diesels commonly used at least install a tension meter. Further, the
older Hercules winches should be abandoned as they are not up to par,
break down often and are not of the highest standard. These are mainly
from eastern Europe.

To take away, besides maintaining the equipment, is to realize that an
avoidable danger is in accelerating too fast in the first few seconds,
because this can (emphasis on "can") cause an unavoidable pitch up
movement that can not be compensated for with the available elevator
authority - resulting in either a high speed and nose high stall at
low altitude due to an excessive angle of attack or a rope break (weak
link). the former is almost always fatal. The latter not, but can be
if the pilot does not react properly and can contribute to
accidents.