Actually if we had better designed winches Bill would be correct.

Unfortunately the gliding movement certainly in the UK, but also in Europe,
seems to have taken the "Easy" option of Skylaunch winches.
400hp and auto Transmission mean that the pilot has little control of the
airspeed during the launch.

Too fast? ease back, go even faster!

PF

At 13:01 21 December 2016, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Tue, 20 Dec 2016 16:59:34 -0800 (PST),
wrote:


If you know how to fly you can have exactly the airspeed you want all
the
way up the launch.

The winch does not and, in fact, cannot control glider airspeed. The
pilot is the only one who can do that. The winch merely controls power
(think thrust). It works exactly as with airplanes, pitch controls
airspeed and power (thrust) controls rate of climb. The pilot merely
adjusts pitch attitude as necessary to maintain the desired airspeed.

Reduce winch power and the rate of climb (angle) decreases but the
airspeed is unchanged. Reduce it all the way to zero and the glider is
left in a glide at the desired airspeed. Increase power and the rate of
climb (angle) increases but the airspeed stays the same. Increase it too
much and the weak link breaks - at exactly the desired airspeed - or the
glider runs out of up elevator and the pilot must then ask for less
power.

It's really very simple.

Hi Bill,

unfortunately it's not that simple. Your description does not even
remotely match the experiences I made I made in the last couple of
thousand winch launches.

Best regards
Andreas