On Monday, November 12, 2018 at 9:06:59 PM UTC-7, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Sunday, November 11, 2018 at 4:10:07 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
...On days without cross winds, just carry enough power to keep
the chute inflated until it lands.

I've never driven the winch, but I've sat in the cab and watched an international cadre of winching masters practice their art. At the two sites that I've done winch launches, operations continued in significant crosswind. Crosswinds seem to be less of a no-go with modern winches.

Additional factors make landing the parachute right in front of the winch challenging for even expert winch operators: 1)2000 foot launches means more time to drift 2)less experienced pilots (like me) that insufficiently compensate for the crosswind (by flying the launch to the upwind side of the field).

I've operated quite a number of different winches and always found it easy to drop the parachute exactly where I wanted it to land. My technique is to rip the 'chute down from the sky at high speed then stop the drum to drop the 'chute directly in front of the winch. A fast recovery of the rope and 'chute minimizes crosswind effects.

Obviously, this depends on a powerful brake which can dependably stop the drum exactly when you want - some testing is required to determine this. Despite occasional screams of panic from onlookers, I have never pulled a 'chute through the rollers nor tangled the cable/rope on the drum doing this.