Kirk,

Sandhill Soaring Club has a similar situation in terms of runway length and winch setup (we use an adjoining field to launch sometimes). Please message me and I can put you in contact with our Chief Flight Instructor who can tell you a bit more about our operation.

Thanks,
Chris Schrader (I mostly fly "CN")

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at 3:19:20 PM UTC-4, kirk.stant wrote:
St Louis Soaring Association (stlsoar.org) is interested in a winch demonstration and possible training at our home gliderport (H07) in Highland, IL - located 30 miles East of St Louis right off I-70.

We currently aerotow with 2 Pawnees and a Supercub, but are looking at the future sustainability of that method (Cost, Noise, etc) and want to explore other options.

We have a wide but relatively short (2600 x 500 ft) grass airfield, all of it available for winch launches - so launch height would naturally be somewhat limited; however if the decision to go with a winch was made we have the option to extend that to almost 4000' when launching to the North, by locating the winch in a field that we own. That should be enough for some decent height.

Our fleet is almost exclusively glass with CG hooks, K-21s for training.

If anyone has any suggestions, please contact me.

Cheers,

Kirk
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