Niels Erik Danielsen wrote:
In our Club in Herning Denmark we have a 25 year old Diesel Electrical
winch, controled by an industrial controller.

http://www.herningsvaeveflyveklub.dk/jordmateriel.shtml

Prior to launch the maximum wire tension is preset according to aircraft
type, and the rest of the launch is basically automatic.

It looks to be quite an interesting design. Does the generator drive AC
traction motors directly through the controller, or are there batteries
or some other form of buffer in the system?

There are clearly tension controlled winches in use at a number of
sites, but so far all seem to be have electric or hydraulic drive. Does
anyone know of a true tension controlled winch using an internal
combustion engine engine driving the drums through a conventional
automatic transmission or torque converter?

Marc