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#16
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I have only just found the posting with the link to pictures of the
Permian Soaring winch [ http://www.permiansoaring.us/ ] and was a bit concerned that there is apparently no guillotine, to be able to sever the cable in the event of a hang-up at the glider end. Is there one and it is just not visible? If not, what is the emergency procedure to ditich the cable? There has been one fatality that I know of in the UK (maybe more) when the release hook on the glider failed to operate and the glider flew in an arc pivoting round the winch until it hit the ground. There have been escapes where the cable wrapped round the axle or caught in some other part of the glider (e.g. diving under the cable and getting it over a wing, when there was a power failure or whatever) and the guillotine saved it from being a disaster. Did the operators pick up from experienced winch users how best to set up the cable - hosepipe, weak links, swivels etc.? Are swivels necessary and/or beneficial with the synthetic cable? Is the winch earthed before use? Not trying to teach grandmother to suck eggs, but anyone starting up use of a winch needs to find a lot of know-how from others - or learn it the hard way. My club started using winches again after a long gap, would not pick up expertise from others, and had some hard lessons, fortunately without major accidents but certainly with some near misses. Like the guy who had a huge electric shock getting down from the cab one day and then realised why there was an earthing (grounding) spike provided. Chris N. |
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