"Kilo Charlie" wrote in message
news:WS%ve.3566$Qo.977@fed1read01...

"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...
I want to thank Don and Stefan and others from Europe and the UK for
stepping in here.

I am fighting a lonely battle to convince my fellow USA pilots that
winch
launch is a perfectly normal way to launch gliders and not some
invention
of
the devil.

Bill-

I think that you have a chip on your shoulder re winch launches. I have
not
seen a single thread that tries to make winch launches sound like they are
an "invention of the devil". Chris' (OC)point is only pertaining to the
aerodynamics unique to the situation that a glider may be in during a
winch
launch cable break. He does not seem to be making any a priori
assumptions
that anything is dangerous about winch launching. I think that the
discussion re that unique situation is not only interesting but may also
possibly pertain to some other scenarios such as a hard pull and turn into
a
thermal, so would like to have a more detailed understanding of it.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

Point accepted. Without thinking, I was responding to opinions expressed
elsewhere and not in this forked thread or elsewhere on RAS. My apology to
anyone thus offended.

The situation envisioned in the beginning of this thread is a very
specialized case where a pilot fails to lower the nose below what appears to
be normal glide attitude after a wire break real or simulated and then
attempts a turn with the wing deeply stalled. That this sometimes results
in a spin departure should surprise no one.

Training for wire breaks starts at a high altitude in free flight. The
zooms, simulated break at 60 knots and pushover are repeated many times
until the student performs them instinctively. If this training is done
correctly, the pilot will have no difficulty lowering the nose the right
amount after a cable break.

Experimenting with this can expose some 'interesting' glider behaviors.
Only those gliders with the largest up elevator authority can stop the nose
from falling through at the normal glide attitude once the fall-through
starts - it requires full aft stick. Arresting the fall through in this
manner with very little forward speed results in a deeply stalled wing with
the angle of attack possibly exceeding 45 degrees. Small asymmetric control
inputs will induce a spin departure that resembles a snap roll about the
vertical axis. I am always surprised by the very low G forces - the glider
seems to 'fall' into the spin with great ease. Once in the spin, normal
recovery methods work fine.

Bill Daniels