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Old February 23rd 18, 09:27 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Jonathan St. Cloud
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Default Minimum number of flights for winch sign off?

With all due respect Sally, I submit your conclusion is not statistically valid nor is your method of analysis. Sorry, the engineer in me sometimes comes out.

Just by the data you suggest, winch launching is safer as you have had the same number of fatals with much more launches done by the winch. In practice this is not true and the BGA has some great pamphlets on both winch launch and aero-tow.



On Friday, February 23, 2018 at 11:51:01 AM UTC-8, Sally Woolrich wrote:
On Friday, 16 February 2018 02:38:18 UTC, Charles Longley wrote:
Just don’t do winch launches.

Let’s see you’re going to attach me to the ground with some homemade contraption? Who knows what the operators qualifications are. No thanks!


Here in the UK all the winches I've seen at gliding sites are a professional product, usually a Skylaunch. The drivers have to be trained and signed off. Many sites - not just the biggest ones - have professional drivers. In the time I've been flying at a mainly winch site we have had one potentially fatal aerotow accident (tug upset) and one fatal winch launch accident. Since we do far more winch and aerotow launches I think the conclusion is obvious - winch launching done properly is as safe as aerotows.