Almost perfect payout winch launch.

On Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8:53:23 AM UTC-6, Waveguru wrote:
I replaced the electric retrieve motor with a 6hp Honda. The electric just didn't have enough poop to pull the chute back well. We've been using this payout winch for years now, and it works very well. It is simple and safe. We are continuing to improve our technique tho. We used to start with the brake set, and accelerate the truck and glider together. But we changed that to accelerating the truck with the brake off, and the line paying out, and after the truck is up to speed, we then set the brake to the proper tension. This worked much better. The glider gets up to flying speed, and off the ground, much quicker, and therefor has control sooner, and gets higher.

The payout winch has several advantages over a conventional winch or auto tow in that when the glider hits lift, the line simply pays out faster. We almost never have any rope breaks because the tension on the brake is never supposed to be set above the breaking strength of the weak link.



It's too bad that some people, that have no idea what we are doing, immediately label it as bad and dangerous. It must be nice to be such a know it all, eh? I figured that it would bring out some of the idiots here when I posted the video. It's just so easy to be a dick online these days, isn't it?



Boggs

Gary,

How are you measuring rope tension?