Auto-Towing - why is this not more popular?

On Friday, October 9, 2015 at 5:59:49 PM UTC-5,
If you can get 2000' - 2500' over the airport, there's no need for a distant tow. If you disagree, get a turbo.

If you can find a thermal, why aero tow? If you can't, there probably aren't any so why aero tow?

Well, if your glider field is only 2400' long, with a highway at one end and a road at the other, you pretty much have to aero tow. We would love to have a winch at SLSA, but our field is just too short, and we have 2 nice Pawnees and a nice 180 Supercub, and our tows are cheap - so THAT is why we don't use a winch (trust me, we have looked at it and done the math...).

But for clubs that have access to a nice long airport, I agree that a modern winch is definitely the way to go!

Kirk
66

kirk.stant wrote 2015/10/10 at 01:54:

Well, if your glider field is only 2400' long, with a highway at one
end and a road at the other, you pretty much have to aero tow. We
would love to have a winch at SLSA, but our field is just too short,
and we have 2 nice Pawnees and a nice 180 Supercub, and our tows are
cheap - so THAT is why we don't use a winch (trust me, we have
looked at it and done the math...).

But for clubs that have access to a nice long airport, I agree that
a modern winch is definitely the way to go!

if it's this location:

,1389m/data=!3m1!1e3

= then you could - if according to local laws / rules, which I don't
know - perhaps place the "launching runway" (I don't know the correct
term in english) a bit more in the east, where your grass strip is
longer, so you could start respectively winch from a point more in
south. The distance between plane and winch would grow to about 2,900
ft., if Google does measure it correct. That's not worse than at our place:

,1102m/data=!3m1!1e3

About 2,600 ft. distance between winch and starting point, and the
options of emergency land-outs are not really better than yours, if
I estimate this right from the google map's view.

We almost only use a winch to launch our gliders ... winch has 2 drums,
7 mm steel cable, a 330 hp Turbo Diesel engine with torque converter and
fixed transmission. Max. release height is up to 1,500 ft. (wood: K8,
K6) or about 1,100-1,200 ft. (glass ships), depending on wind speed,
winch driver's and pilot's skill :-)

Given a good day, XC distances flown from our field are up to 1,000 km -
given a bad day, just training pattern.

regards
Werner

On Monday, October 12, 2015 at 2:19:37 PM UTC-5, Werner Schmidt wrote:

if it's this location:

,1389m/data=!3m1!1e3

= then you could - if according to local laws / rules, which I don't
know - perhaps place the "launching runway" (I don't know the correct
term in english) a bit more in the east, where your grass strip is
longer, so you could start respectively winch from a point more in
south. The distance between plane and winch would grow to about 2,900
ft., if Google does measure it correct. That's not worse than at our place:

,1102m/data=!3m1!1e3

About 2,600 ft. distance between winch and starting point, and the
options of emergency land-outs are not really better than yours, if
I estimate this right from the google map's view.

We almost only use a winch to launch our gliders ... winch has 2 drums,
7 mm steel cable, a 330 hp Turbo Diesel engine with torque converter and
fixed transmission. Max. release height is up to 1,500 ft. (wood: K8,
K6) or about 1,100-1,200 ft. (glass ships), depending on wind speed,
winch driver's and pilot's skill :-)

Given a good day, XC distances flown from our field are up to 1,000 km -
given a bad day, just training pattern.

regards
Werner

Werner,

You found us! Yes, we could use 2600 of the current runway for taking off (the threshold is displaced for landing over the road, that doesn't apply for takeoffs). We have looked at that - and so far the consensus it that it just isn't worth the effort.

We have talked about trying to get a winch demo at our field to find out it we should look more carefully at a winch - but as we already have 2 nice Pawnees, there is not much interest.

As an aside, one of the disadvantages of using aero tow is that everybody gets used to 3000' tows and can't thermal down low! Even on booming days I'll tow them through the house thermal at 2000' but they will grimly hang on then release in sink, spot on 3000' agl. Arrggghh!

But I will bring up your point at our next club meeting (tomorrow) - maybe we can get some interest going. I for one would love to have a winch option!

(But I do love towing with the Pawnee... ;^)

Cheers,

Kirk