soaring into the future

It's nice to hear that winch launching is possible
at an existing US airport/gliderport. Over here in
Europe the vast majority of training flights at many
clubs are by winch. Learning to fly gliders up to solo
standard is probably the most expensive part of gliding,
so for the circuit bashing stuff winch launches are
ideal. Generally we also mix in some aerotowing for
the exercises that need a bit of altitude, and so that
students learn how to aerotow, which is a considerable
skill in itself.

There also seems to be a view in the States that soaring
away from a winch launch is only possible if you have
a site right next to, or on top of, a ridge, or if
you can get 2500ft+ launches. In fact many winch launching
sites in Europe are in flat areas. You just have to
learn to soar away in thermals from fairly low altitudes.
I fly from a flatland club in the south of England.
Our winch runs vary from 3500 to 4500 feet, depending
on the wind strength and direction, and we normally
get launches in the range 1400 to 2000ft. On days when
there are thermals, our better soaring pilots will
probably get away 8 times out of 10. Even if they fall
down, another winch launch is not going to break the
bank.

Airfields are usually placed on high, well drained
land, so are often good thermal sources in themselves,
especially if there are hard runways. The trick is
to fly just downwind of the airfield looking for thermal
markers, such as other gliders circling higher up,
birds taking off and, in hotter climates, dust devils.
In the absence of any of these markers just try to
cover as much ground as you can before getting down
to circuit height. Even in the circuit you still may
still encounter lift, but only use it if it doesn't
compromise the safety of the flight.

Del Copeland

At 19:42 28 December 2007, Sam Discusflyer wrote:
Our club operates a winch from a public airport. The
FOB manager is very supportive. It takes some planning.
It requires you to discuss with your club and discuss
directly with the FOB manager. Prepare a presentation
(BTW nothing fancy), prepare a written agreement, discuss
safety, operations, and the airports revenue sharing
amount. This is a critical step as most FOB managers
must report the activity to the city/county airport
board. The BGA has emmense experience and offer a lot
of documentation to assist you. USE IT. Back up what
you tell the FOB. Bring in some experienced winch operators
for your first weekend. It works.

I was thinking about the bait switch today and how
that works. I laughed when I thought about a reverse
way to use it. One of our students had been training
on aero tow. Paying about $30/tow. He was only doing
2-3 tows every couple of weeks. You could see he was
on the edge of losing interest. Our winch operations
came along at just the right time. We only charge $10/waunch.
This student took 3 waunches the first day and 9 waunches
the next. He was so hooked he then ran for a club officer
position. He exclaimed '9 flights for the price of
3'. WOW.
So have a new student pay for 3 aero tows for $90,
then introduce them to 9 waunches for the same price.
And guess what, they also get 3 times the practice.

If you want a copy of our presentation and other materials,
drop me a line.


SAM


At 16:42 28 December 2007, Bill Daniels wrote:

'toad' wrote in message
.

com...
Sorry that I'm late to the discussion, but I think
the issue about
winches in the US is primarily about land. I doubt
that there are
very few public use airports in the US that would
allow winch
operations. There are only a few that put up with
aero tow glider
operations. So to start a winch operation in the
US you would have
to own enough land and be able to get it designated
an airport (hard
to do politically) to allow winch operation. In the
northeastern US,
there is only one glider clubs that I know of that
has the space to do
it, at Philadelphia.

The land for such an operation would cost several
million dollars at
todays prices. Aero tow doesn't sound so expensive
compared to paying
for that mortgage.

Todd Smith
3S

Todd, I think you overstate the situation.

I have asked three airport managers about winch launch
and the response was
'bring it on'. It seems almost universal that glider
pilots assume winch
operations would be turned down so they don't actually
ask. Ask in a
reasonable way and you may be surprised at the answer.

Managers of small airports that have traditionally
served small, single
engine airplanes have seen the number of operations
at their airports drop
dramatically as the price of 100LL avgas has soared.
(Many predict 100LL
will become non-existant within the next three years.)
That drop in
operations has them worried about their jobs which,
to a degree, depends on
public demand for airport services.

Against this background, a proposal that would bring
100's of operations per
day, even if they are gliders, can look pretty good,
particularly if those
operations don't generate noise complaints.

Work up an reasonable winch operations plan with lots
of information about
other successful operations and present it. Can't
hurt.

Bill Daniels
p.s. I you want help, e-mail me.