"ContestID67" wrote in message
...
Coupla' questions;

1) What was the highest release?
A little over 1700 feet AGL with the ASK21 (K21's always seem to come out
on top)

2) What was the lowest release?
~50 feet (rope break). But I think what you meant was lowest release when
nothing went wrong and that was about 1400 feet with the G103 Twin II.

3) Was it skill/training/experience of the pilot/operator/both that
allowed you to get to the highest release?
Nope, just following standard winch launch protocol.

This winch allowed a fairly simple technique of just "capturing" the
airspeed and holding it at 60 knots with the 103 and 65 knots with the K21.
If you didn't let the airspeed get high it was easy to control it with
elevator inputs.

I just let the glider float off the runway and climb gently with rapidly
increasing airspeed until 50 knots and then smoothly pitched up to "capture"
the airspeed at the pre-selected "target". All the pilots found this easy
to master.

4) What types of line was used? Steel? Spectra? How long was the
line?

We were .25" diameter double braid (Kermantle?) Spectra. There was a 5/32"
12 strand load bearing core of Spectra (UHMWPE) and a braided cover. The
cover was probably polyester and was suffering from the rollers. I think we
were using about 3700 feet according to Google Earth.

The 1//4" diameter meant that the winch drum wouldn't hold a runway length
of rope so we used a taxiway intersection as the launch point. 1/4" also
meant that the aerodynamic drag was high which limited the achieved release
height. Don will probably switch to 3/16" 12-strand single braid Spectra
when this stuff wears out. Using the full runway length and thinner rope
should permit 2000' launches.

Bill Daniels.