Overspeeding on winch launches

Thanks everyone for your feedback. My take aways from this a

1. Speak with the winch driver. I've had fast launches a few times with no reduction in power when signalling.
2. Get the airspeed under control early in the launch.
3. Release early if over speeding past the first 1/2 of the launch.
4. Smooth control inputs and don't give full up elevator towards the top of the launch if over speeding.

Thanks,

Dan

Having a little engine I don't winch launch but reading through
the earlier posts it sounds like little has changed in 40 years:
why, in the 21st Century, don't the pilot and winch driver
communicate by radio? Surely all this waggling the wings
about stuff should long ago have been scrapped?

I would repeat what Scott said above as well. I've done quite a few launches as driver on our winch here at Utah Soaring, and we are always back to 1/3 or 1/4 throttle as the climb rate begins to slow and the glider begins to arc over at the top, and sometimes get all the way to idle by the time the back release engages. The less tension on the line the better the back release works, at least on our Astir.

I assume "signaling" is done by radio? If not, that seems to be a "weak link" in the process chain, as Dave suggests.

Mike

On Tue, 07 Nov 2017 09:00:58 -0800, Mike Hendron wrote:

I would repeat what Scott said above as well. I've done quite a few
launches as driver on our winch here at Utah Soaring, and we are always
back to 1/3 or 1/4 throttle as the climb rate begins to slow and the
glider begins to arc over at the top, and sometimes get all the way to
idle by the time the back release engages. The less tension on the line
the better the back release works, at least on our Astir.

I assume "signaling" is done by radio? If not, that seems to be a "weak
link" in the process chain, as Dave suggests.

Where I fly, glider-winch signalling is visible: lower the nose of the
launch is too slow and use the rudder to wave your tail at the winch if
its too fast.

Our duty launch marshal uses radio, rather than lights, to pass glider
details to the winch driver and to manage the launch, but that doesn't
use an airband frequency and we do not have an airband radio in the
winch.

Our airband frequency is used for glider-tug, glider-glider comms and for
blind calls as we join the circuit. The launch marshal has an airband
receiver to help him maintain situational awareness, but he is primarily
concerned with managing winch launching and co-ordinating launches with
aerotow operations. On a typical day winch launches considerably
outnumber aero tows.

I know that at least one Scandinavian club experimented with using radio
telemetry to display the glider's airspeed to the winch driver, but I
don't know if they still use it or what their conclusions about its
benefits were.


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