SAFE Winch Launching

In article
,
bildan wrote:

On Jul 11, 2:00*am, Derek Copeland wrote:

At my club we typically get about 1600ft in no wind and
2000ft launching into a 10 knot headwind. Our standard aerotows are 2000ft,
but you can go as high as you like, depending on your needs and the depth
of your wallet.

This week we were getting as high as 1900' from 3900 feet of rope at
9000 feet density altitude with little wind with the Hydrowinch. With
no gear shifting at all, the Hydrowinch is MUCH smoother than any
winch with an automatic transmission.

Skylaunches are just like old Gerhleins with new paint - they use
exactly the same components. They are not particularly well
controlled since they use road vehicle torque converters and automatic
transmissions free to shift gears when they please. The old junk
Gerhleins around most US clubs are probably the only winches in the
world worse than a Skylaunch - but they are a LOT cheaper.

BTW, notice how Derek has to reply to himself to get any conversation
at all?

My club used to have a very good winch. It was a one-off called the
"Eagle Winch" and was designed and built by one of our members. He got
his initial glider training in Germany and had knowledge of quality
winches. That winch is now with the Philadelphia Glider Council, I
believe. We were forced to let go of it because we moved to a municipal
airport that was incompatible with winch operations (crossing runways).

The Eagle winch has an automatic transmission. However, in our operation
it was locked into 2nd gear for normal conditions. In strong wind, we
used 1st gear. No gear changes necessary. It was very easy to operate
and became even more so after the steel cable was swapped our for plasma
rope by the second owners at the Memphis club. At our original field,
with 4000 feet of cable out, we could easily launch our single seaters
to 2000 feet if we had any headwind.