At 20:00 03 August 2009, Derek Copeland wrote:
Hi Pete,

What club do you normally fly at, because the Mynd doesn't have an
abrasive tarmac runway, or for that matter much mud except in the
Winter;
just nice smooth short grass well lubricated with sheep dropping. Also
to
the best of my knowledge they have always used steel cable, rather than
Dyneema.


Hi, the club with the tarmac and Skylaunch was the now defunct Denbigh
club. I am not too sure what the replacement plastic rope was, only
that it was a turquoise green colour, and I could very easily splice it
using about 6 'interlocking twists'.
I only ever had one accidental cable break, and that was at 850ft when a
severe attack of turbulent air was encountered, which bust the weak link.

You are quite right about Long Myndd, they use the 4.5mm steel cable, with
a lighter (~ 3mm) retrieve cable to the retrieve winch at the launch end.
If they have gliders lined up, it's about one every two minutes, on their
one and only cable.
The old Sealand club used to have a very large 6 cable winch, which could
launch 6 sequentially, before the land-rover had to bring all the cables
back. I don't know what that winch was, but it may have been the sort
used at other RAF gliding sites.

Pete