Tost internal Winch

Who out there uses the Tost winch for rewinding the rope into the tow plane?
What procedure do you use?
Do you stop at the end of the rope, then start up again when ready to
launch, or do you have a slow 'rolling' start. Do you have problems with
'jerking' the glider and overrunning the rope?
We need the weight of collctive experience--no 'armchair experts' please.

We use a PA-25-235 Pawnee, paved runway, shared with power and parachute
traffic.

Thanks

--
Hartley Falbaum, CFIG, etc,
ASW27B "KF"

HL Falbaum wrote:

Do you stop at the end of the rope, then start up again when ready to
launch, or do you have a slow 'rolling' start.

Both. It depends. There is a sign for "roll until the rope is tight" and
another sign for "rope is tight, take off now".

Normally, attaching the rope is the last point on the checklist. This
means when the rope is attached, the glider is ready to go. This usually
results in a "rolling" start, but there is always the extra signal for
"take off now". Without this explicit sign, the tug has to stop at the
end of the rope and wait. This is the case when there's power traffic on
final. (We have a power runway and a glider runway side by side. It's
the wingrunners responsibility to ensure that there's no traffic in
final. No parallel operation.)

Do you have problems with
'jerking' the glider and overrunning the rope?

Never had a problem, but we operate on grass. On paved runways, you will
have to use the brake.

Stefan

Hi Brian,I fly a Husky with a winch in it (no tost, but similar).I use the same procedure as you described it, except
that I can´t see the winch, but we painted the last
meter (approx. one yard) red/white, which I see in
the mirror and we do have marks on the runway, which
give me a rough indication how much rope is still on
the winch.However, I still have one question. Why do you think
that towing with a winch is not as fast as towing/landing
without a winch and with the rope attached?I don´t see a difference, as you have to take out the
slack/pull out the rope in both cases!?Regards,Markus

I pretty much agree with BT. The only reason landing with the rope
might be faster than the winch is in the situation where the towplane
can land or taxi up from behind the glider. I have seen this senerio
used quite a bit. The Ground crew just carrys a hay hook and grabs the
rope with it and starts pulling the rope over to the glider while the
tow plane continues moving ahead. The tow plane does not stop until it
is nearly all of the slack is out. The Crew then hooks up the glider
and the tow plane moves forward a few feet to take up the slack. If
the glider is ready the tow will commence as soon as the slack is out.

This is faster only because the towplane does not have to stop for the
crew to retrieve the glider end of the rope.

Brian


Markus Feyerabend wrote in message ...
Hi Brian,I fly a Husky with a winch in it (no tost, but similar).I use the same procedure as you described it, except
that I can´t see the winch, but we painted the last
meter (approx. one yard) red/white, which I see in
the mirror and we do have marks on the runway, which
give me a rough indication how much rope is still on
the winch.However, I still have one question. Why do you think
that towing with a winch is not as fast as towing/landing
without a winch and with the rope attached?I don´t see a difference, as you have to take out the
slack/pull out the rope in both cases!?Regards,Markus