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#1
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Pay-out winch video
I thought I'd post this with a new subject line so no one missed it.
We put a video of our pay-out winch on our web site: http://www.nwskysports.com/ |
#2
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The reason we are using a pay out winch instead of a regular winch is that
at our airport, there are taxi ways on both sides of the main runway, and no large grass area that we could use that wouldn't involve having the winch line laying across places that other planes would have to taxi across. The airport managers and I agreed that this would make it very difficult and dangerous to use a normal long line winch here. A couple of members of the Willamette Valley Soaring Club had already built this pay out winch to near completion so I approached the airport managers here in Hood River with the idea of using this type of winch instead. They agreed that this would be much safer and an acceptable launch method. I bought the winch from my buddies and have made several refinements to work out some bugs and now it's working very well. The pay out winch has a spool of rope with a disc brake on it, set to let line out when the glider pulls harder than the drag is set. In some ways this is safer than a normal winch because it makes it almost impossible to break the line if the drag is set correctly. If the glider balloons up, the line just pays out faster, instead of breaking, while still maintaining the pull on the line. I don't think we are able to get quite as high as we would be able to with a regular winch but with 3000ft of runway and no wind, we get 800 to 1000 feet and with a 20mph wind, we have gotten as high as 1300ft so far in our 2-33 with a cg hook. We are still working on just what is the optimal speed for the tow vehicle and drag setting and I'm hoping we will be able to get as high as 1500ft. Gary Boggs, CFIG 3650 Airport Drive Hood River, OR 97031-9613 541.490.5557 503.708.8869 "Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... I thought I'd post this with a new subject line so no one missed it. We put a video of our pay-out winch on our web site: http://www.nwskysports.com/ |
#3
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I forgot to add that there is a modified starter motor on the spool and
after the glider releases, the operator reels in the line and the parachute falls down very near the tow vehicle. During the initial trials we were using some poly rope and had some trouble with the line cutting into the wrapped line on the real and had a few line breaks. We increased the drum diameter and went to synthetic line and have had no more line breaks since. "Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... The reason we are using a pay out winch instead of a regular winch is that at our airport, there are taxi ways on both sides of the main runway, and no large grass area that we could use that wouldn't involve having the winch line laying across places that other planes would have to taxi across. The airport managers and I agreed that this would make it very difficult and dangerous to use a normal long line winch here. A couple of members of the Willamette Valley Soaring Club had already built this pay out winch to near completion so I approached the airport managers here in Hood River with the idea of using this type of winch instead. They agreed that this would be much safer and an acceptable launch method. I bought the winch from my buddies and have made several refinements to work out some bugs and now it's working very well. The pay out winch has a spool of rope with a disc brake on it, set to let line out when the glider pulls harder than the drag is set. In some ways this is safer than a normal winch because it makes it almost impossible to break the line if the drag is set correctly. If the glider balloons up, the line just pays out faster, instead of breaking, while still maintaining the pull on the line. I don't think we are able to get quite as high as we would be able to with a regular winch but with 3000ft of runway and no wind, we get 800 to 1000 feet and with a 20mph wind, we have gotten as high as 1300ft so far in our 2-33 with a cg hook. We are still working on just what is the optimal speed for the tow vehicle and drag setting and I'm hoping we will be able to get as high as 1500ft. Gary Boggs, CFIG 3650 Airport Drive Hood River, OR 97031-9613 541.490.5557 503.708.8869 "Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... I thought I'd post this with a new subject line so no one missed it. We put a video of our pay-out winch on our web site: http://www.nwskysports.com/ |
#4
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Hi Gary, Interesting, my brain was working on a system very similar with the starter motor retrieve. What's your gear ratios and drum diameter? How long to pay-back on 1000ft of line? I didn't see a chute on the line, but you're driver stopped pretty close the the wider cross-road on the end of the run. My drag mechanism was a hydraulic motor with a pressure regulator on the output side. Torque limiting pay-out tension would be very easy to control and calibrate. Any idea what tension you're generating to trigger the pay-out? The whole thing was going to be a bolt-on using a 2" receiver socket on the back of any tow vehicle. Please, some pictures? Chris Gary Boggs wrote: I forgot to add that there is a modified starter motor on the spool and after the glider releases, the operator reels in the line and the parachute falls down very near the tow vehicle. During the initial trials we were using some poly rope and had some trouble with the line cutting into the wrapped line on the real and had a few line breaks. We increased the drum diameter and went to synthetic line and have had no more line breaks since. "Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... The reason we are using a pay out winch instead of a regular winch is that at our airport, there are taxi ways on both sides of the main runway, and no large grass area that we could use that wouldn't involve having the winch line laying across places that other planes would have to taxi across. The airport managers and I agreed that this would make it very difficult and dangerous to use a normal long line winch here. A couple of members of the Willamette Valley Soaring Club had already built this pay out winch to near completion so I approached the airport managers here in Hood River with the idea of using this type of winch instead. They agreed that this would be much safer and an acceptable launch method. I bought the winch from my buddies and have made several refinements to work out some bugs and now it's working very well. The pay out winch has a spool of rope with a disc brake on it, set to let line out when the glider pulls harder than the drag is set. In some ways this is safer than a normal winch because it makes it almost impossible to break the line if the drag is set correctly. If the glider balloons up, the line just pays out faster, instead of breaking, while still maintaining the pull on the line. I don't think we are able to get quite as high as we would be able to with a regular winch but with 3000ft of runway and no wind, we get 800 to 1000 feet and with a 20mph wind, we have gotten as high as 1300ft so far in our 2-33 with a cg hook. We are still working on just what is the optimal speed for the tow vehicle and drag setting and I'm hoping we will be able to get as high as 1500ft. Gary Boggs, CFIG 3650 Airport Drive Hood River, OR 97031-9613 541.490.5557 503.708.8869 "Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... I thought I'd post this with a new subject line so no one missed it. We put a video of our pay-out winch on our web site: http://www.nwskysports.com/ |
#6
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"Gary Boggs" wrote in message ... My guess as to the force on line is probably something like 300lbs? I think the next mod we will incorporate will be a tensiometer on the line. Right now we use a pressure gauge on the brake line and as the disc brake heats up, the pressure required to get the correct tension on the line goes up. It would work much better if our winch operator was able to monitor the actual tension on the line, instead of the pressure on the brake. If we could find an electronic tensiometer, we could program it to operate the brake, but this would make the winch even more complicated and expensive. I've searched the web for available tensiometers, but found nothing suitable, so I think we will just build one into our system. The tension on the line should be about the same as the gross weight of the glider. 300 pounds will result in a poor launch. The tension on the line is the result of cooperation between the pilot and the winch operator. No matter how hard the winch tries to increase the line tension it won't happen unless the glider pilot pulls up. A better idea is to use an RC model airplane telemetry package like RCAT to send the glider airspeed to the winch operator and let him control that. The glider pilot can then control the line tension with the elevator. I think it will require more power than a starter motor for that though. Bill Daniels |
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