About the only similarity between a Skylaunch winch and a Gerhlein is that
they both use V8 gasoline engines with an automatic gearbox. The Skylaunch
has benefitted from 40 years of development, is well designed and properly
engineered, and is built to be heavy enough that it cannot be pulled into
the air or toppled over by heavy modern GRP two seater training gliders,
unlike the little Gerhlein.

Bill Daniels' argument is like saying that the latest Ford automobiles
are no better than a 1920's Model T because they share the same basic
components!

In Europe Skylaunch winches are considered to be state of the art, and a
well proven design. They are often bought by clubs in preference to the
stepless diesel-hydraulic and electric winches favoured by Bill. The
latter are in theory better, but are considerably more expensive and
don't work any better in practice. Economics and proven reliability do
come into the argument as to which design to choose!

The current manufacturers of glider winches are Skylaunch (UK), Tost
(Germany), MEL (Holland), Hydrostart (Holland), Herkules (Czech Republic),
Electrowinch (Germany), Egger (Germany), Integrale (Germany), Supacat (UK),
plus the two US designs described below which (as far as I am aware) are
both still under development. A quick 'google' should find you all the
relevant web sites.

Derek Copeland


At 13:33 13 July 2008, Bill Daniels wrote:
The skylaunch is a cosmetic update of the 1960's US Gerhlein winches and

suffers from the same major shortcomings. If you still like it, save
$50k
-
$75k by spending a couple of thousand for an old Gerhlein and fix it up.

If you'd like a modern, state of the art winch, take a look at these
from
US
winch buiders:

http://www.romansdesign.com/
and
http://www.hydrowinch.com

Bill Daniels