OK so time to start a new thread.

I submit that the best winch I have ever driven, been launched by etc is
the home built single drum monstrosity currently at Parys.

Metrics used to come to this conclusion would be safety and cost / launch.

It was built in the 1960s by Hans Lobach while he was flying at
Underberg. When they upgraded to a more powerful double drum design the
Parys bunch purchased it.

It has a donor vehicle was a Ford Ranchero 1ton pickup -
352 CID Ford Windsor V8 (170Kw when new - somewhat less now)
3 speed transmission - launched in second with the kickdown disabled.
Standard (rumoured to be 4.16:1) axle mounted inverted with a shortened
propshaft.

So - we have one machine that has been launching training two seaters
for more than half a century now.
No one has been killed launching with it in those 50 years. As far as I
know the most serious injury has been a broken finger when someone
pulled on the cable while the winch driver was removing a loop on the drum.

Still has the same engine, same gearbox etc. Remarkable considering it
averages around 50-60 launches a weekend. So it has somewhere between
100,000 and 150,000 launches behind it without major overhaul.

I have launched in Bergfalkes, Blaniks, Std Cirrus and Kestrel 19 on
it. Others have launched Grob 103 and other "heavies".
Interestingly considering the arguments about more sophistication and
instrumentation and all the rest of it the operating procedure is very
simple. The rev counter and speedometer have long been disconnected - it
was found far better for the winch driver to learn to read the catenary
on the cable and adjust tension appropriately to the actual circumstances.

Purchase / build cost is lost to the mists of time. Hans Lobach
celebrated 60 years of gliding taking a launch on "his" winch a couple
of years ago - but could not recall what it cost to build. Cost per
launch is so low the club winch cost is $4 - and that is with the
thing drinking 800ml of premium per launch. Newer engines would be a lot
more efficient.

Apart from the head gear (rollers and guillotine) there is little that
wears out. 2.8mm class B spring steel single strand wire works great, We
get about 1000 launches from a cable before it starts work hardening and
breaking.

That winch is probably the only reason such a small club can continue to
operate economically.

That said it is now in serious need of a little TLC - mainly cosmetic -
to prevent people mistaking it for a heap of scrap metal at the end of
the runway...

The only problem is no-one wants to stop flying long enough to do the
prettying up.

So - who has a better winch? (on metrics of safety over life and cost /
launch)

If anyone wants to see pictures - The carburettor clogged up a jet on a
nice day. Serious attention required. ;-)

http://www.whisperingwings.org.za/ga...0&id=P1010008a

A couple more pictures he
http://www.whisperingwings.org.za/ga...album10&page=7

Happy winching.