Mark Zivley wrote:

This project should probably be moved to a slightly different forum
like a yahoo group where people interested in participating can do so
without
filling up RAS. This also allows the sharing of files and even voting
on ideas as the project starts to take shape. We're definitely onto
something here, lets get started. We should start by doing some
deciding as to what will be designed. 1 or 2 or more drums.....

Now you are talking!

Lets get the fundamentals right. We want a design that is easy to build,
not too expensive, simple to operate, easy to maintain and with safety
standards to meet current best practice. Performance should be capable
of launching a glass 2 seater trainer to a hight not less than 1/3 of
the runway length in zero wind conditions.

I vote for a big block V8 petrol motor powering a double drum winch. For
the guys who want to talk about exotics electric winches and diesels
with modified ECU's - go for it but lets separate the threads. I think
the successful 'one design' winch is going to run on petrol and will be
made from readily available hardware. If we have any spare cash left in
the budget we will spend it on plasma rope.

As a starting point, lets get some specs on winches that have been built
already together with performances achieved. We need to start off with
parameters like engine capacity and size, drum dimensions, final drive
ratios, gearbox/torque converter details and the source make and model
of the components used.

Then we need detail engineering drawings for the clever bits. Winch drum
axle mods, guillotines, guide pulleys. These should best be based on
proven designs. Details for a Skylaunch like throttle control would be
nice. Good engineering detail for the safety items like the operator's
cage and cable guards might save a few home builders from unexpected
injury.

The engineering should accommodate a choice of cables. Single strand,
multistrand or plasma. We need to spec those too.

We should also put together a "bill of materials" for anybody planning
on establishing a winching operation. I am thinking of a comprehensive
list of things like weak links, rings, 'chute, snake, signal lights,
radios, cable retrieve vehicle... That in itself would at least allow
for drawing up a proper budget.

As for a forum - if we are going to move off RAS, Al's gliderforum.com
might be a good home. If we want to run off an e-mail list, I can
probably make a plan to host it. We will also need a repository for
information - a web site - perhaps a "wikki".

Finally we need to establish some ground rules regarding copyright and
ownership of the design. My vote is to follow the "Open Source" model
used by Linux etc. Publish everything and allow anybody to use it - but
under the condition they publish details of what they build and how
well it works.

Who's in?

Ian