Winch demo wanted near St Louis

The St Louis Soaring Association is interested in setting up a winch demo for our members at our field (H07) in Highland, Illinois. Are there any clubs with winches within reasonable distance that are willing to give us a demo, and possibly give ground launch endorsements?

Our club is in the middle of discussions on the feasibility of acquiring and employing a winch, for both cost and membership attraction.

If interested, please contact me directly, at kirk dot stant at gmail dot com.

Kirk
66

On Tuesday, January 29, 2013 9:43:08 AM UTC-7, kirk.stant wrote:
The St Louis Soaring Association is interested in setting up a winch demo for our members at our field (H07) in Highland, Illinois. Are there any clubs with winches within reasonable distance that are willing to give us a demo, and possibly give ground launch endorsements?



Our club is in the middle of discussions on the feasibility of acquiring and employing a winch, for both cost and membership attraction.



If interested, please contact me directly, at kirk dot stant at gmail dot com.



Kirk

66

Hire Don Ingraham from Cross Country Soaring in Minnesota. However, unless SLSA owns the land between John Dr and I-70, you are about 500ft short of a practical length. If you can stage near I-70, it'll definitely work. If you don't own it, perhaps you can lease a path through the field. Doesn't have to be too wide, but you'd only be able to launch to the north.

Frank Whiteley

Frank,

Thanks for the info. Yes, SLSA owns the land all the way to I-70, and we have discussed what we would need to do to use it for winch launching - at a minimum a path for the winch cable, to extending the runway as necessary. So our useable field length extends from IL 40 to the south (the displaced threshold) to I-70 to the north. Not ideal, but OK, and we normally launch to the North.

Kirk

On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 5:57:19 AM UTC-7, kirk.stant wrote:
Frank,



Thanks for the info. Yes, SLSA owns the land all the way to I-70, and we have discussed what we would need to do to use it for winch launching - at a minimum a path for the winch cable, to extending the runway as necessary.. So our useable field length extends from IL 40 to the south (the displaced threshold) to I-70 to the north. Not ideal, but OK, and we normally launch to the North.



Kirk

With a stout winch and good technique, 1500-1600ft launches would be doable on a regular basis, higher possible, especially with 8-10kts of headwind.

Don's winch sports a 350cid Corvette motor. Check out the video and pictures at www.crosscountrysoaring.com.

If you do this, develop a cadre of good winch drivers. You don't expect all members to fly the tug, don't expect everyone to drive the winch. Others can help with rope retrieves and as launch marshals. Then spend some of that flight scholarship money on youth.

Frank

Hi, you mention making a pathway as part of the take-off zone. This needs
to be not too narrow. As a worst case scenario you need to allow dropping
space for the cable in the event of a winch stoppage, such as it jumping
out of gear (as happened to me once at 50ft.).

The cable with drouge chute will travel almost 45 degrees from it's release
point in even the slightest cross-wind.
Trying to retrieve the cable from a tree usually results in damage to the
drouge and to the tree.

Also you need to factor this dropping zone into the equation if you are
near any roads. (is I-70 a busy main road?)

Pete (UK)

At 15:56 30 January 2013, Frank Whiteley wrote:
On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 5:57:19 AM UTC-7, kirk.stant wrote:
Frank,
=20
=20
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Thanks for the info. Yes, SLSA owns the land all the way to I-70, and
we=
have discussed what we would need to do to use it for winch launching -
at=
a minimum a path for the winch cable, to extending the runway as
necessary=
.. So our useable field length extends from IL 40 to the south (the
displace=
d threshold) to I-70 to the north. Not ideal, but OK, and we normally
laun=
ch to the North.
=20
=20
=20
Kirk

With a stout winch and good technique, 1500-1600ft launches would be
doable=
on a regular basis, higher possible, especially with 8-10kts of
headwind.

Don's winch sports a 350cid Corvette motor. Check out the video and
pictur=
es at www.crosscountrysoaring.com.

If you do this, develop a cadre of good winch drivers. You don't expect
al=
l members to fly the tug, don't expect everyone to drive the winch.
Others=
can help with rope retrieves and as launch marshals. Then spend some of
t=
hat flight scholarship money on youth.

Frank

At 16:43 29 January 2013, kirk.stant wrote:
The St Louis Soaring Association is interested in setting up a winch demo

Kirk,

You probably know this but the BGA has a good web page on winch launching
safety at:
http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/saf...hlaunching.htm

Bryan

I recall years ago when a soaring club in Colorado, USA dropped the winch
cable across overhead power lines. It started quite a grass fire!


"Bryan Poehler" wrote in message
...
At 16:43 29 January 2013, kirk.stant wrote:
The St Louis Soaring Association is interested in setting up a winch demo

Kirk,

You probably know this but the BGA has a good web page on winch launching
safety at:
http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/saf...hlaunching.htm

Bryan

And naysayers please note you cannot short power lines or cause a spark with modern spectra line. Ya for technology. Karen

On Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:21:25 +0000, Peter Higgs wrote:

Hi, you mention making a pathway as part of the take-off zone. This
needs to be not too narrow. As a worst case scenario you need to allow
dropping space for the cable in the event of a winch stoppage, such as
it jumping out of gear (as happened to me once at 50ft.).

The cable with drouge chute will travel almost 45 degrees from it's
release point in even the slightest cross-wind.
Trying to retrieve the cable from a tree usually results in damage to
the drouge and to the tree.

W"inching 101: NEVER try to retrieve a cable that's off the field by
pulling with the winch.

Send the cable truck down with a bod or two to manually get the cable
back on the field and then pull it in slowly. If the drogue starts to fly
there's every chance that the cross wind that dropped it off the field in
the first place will take it off the field again.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Kirk,

How long is your field with the overrun?

We use the same type of winch as Don (from Faribault) and with our 2700 ft field, we are routinely achieving heights of 1000-1100 ft AGL, and the highest launches have been 1500-1600 AGL.

Dave