Sparrowhawk and airtow

Why not just winch launch the thing and leave all this FAR bible pounding
behind?

Bill Daniels

not every place you want to fly has a winch...

BT

"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
news:IKtyc.11725$2i5.1607@attbi_s52...
Why not just winch launch the thing and leave all this FAR bible pounding
behind?

Bill Daniels

especially in the U.S.
"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:k8vyc.18913$fZ1.13084@fed1read03...
not every place you want to fly has a winch...

BT

"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
news:IKtyc.11725$2i5.1607@attbi_s52...
Why not just winch launch the thing and leave all this FAR bible
pounding
behind?

Bill Daniels







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No winch? Buy or build one.

Bill Daniels

"Slick" wrote in message
...
especially in the U.S.
"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:k8vyc.18913$fZ1.13084@fed1read03...
not every place you want to fly has a winch...

BT

"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
news:IKtyc.11725$2i5.1607@attbi_s52...
Why not just winch launch the thing and leave all this FAR bible
pounding
behind?

Bill Daniels







-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

Bill Daniels wrote:
No winch? Buy or build one.

Bill Daniels

And if it was built for the SparrowHawk (415 pounds gross), it wouldn't
have to be much of a winch. Or tow it with car, even a small one.
--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Bill Daniels wrote:
No winch? Buy or build one.

In the northeast US we have lots of trees and our airport is a
relatively narrow rectangular plot of cleared land surrounded by trees -
lots of trees. In any kind of cross wind, where would the winch rope
land after release? Right!

The glider grass runway is next to the paved runway used by the power
crowd. A paved taxiway leading from the paved rwy to the ramp crosses
the grass runway at midfield. The airport manager would, properly, be
not inclined to permit winch launching across an active taxiway.

There are lots of cases where a winch is not an option.

Tony V.

"Tony Verhulst" wrote in message
...
Bill Daniels wrote:
No winch? Buy or build one.

In the northeast US we have lots of trees and our airport is a
relatively narrow rectangular plot of cleared land surrounded by trees -
lots of trees. In any kind of cross wind, where would the winch rope
land after release? Right!

Actually, the rope would wind up on the winch drum after release since
normal procedure is to wind it all the way in if there is any chance that
letting it fall would cause problems.

A confined runway surrounded by trees isn't a great option for airtow either
unless the tug can always keep the glider in a position to return to the
runway in the event of a premature launch failure. Winch launch has an
advantage here because the glider is always in a position to either land
straight ahead or, if it is too high for that, fly a short pattern.


The glider grass runway is next to the paved runway used by the power
crowd. A paved taxiway leading from the paved rwy to the ramp crosses
the grass runway at midfield. The airport manager would, properly, be
not inclined to permit winch launching across an active taxiway.

There are lots of cases where a winch is not an option.

True. However, there are also lots of places where it is an option. In
fact, many more than most US pilots suppose.

There is a tendency among pilots not familiar with winch launch to think up
all the ways that improper procedures can screw up the operation and little
appreciation of how a well disciplined operation can co-exist with other
traffic. Winch launch operations co-exist with air-tow and power traffic at
many European glider operations. (In response to the preceding point I had
a US pilot blurt, "But Europeans are smarter than we are".) Could be, they
use winches.

Bill Daniels

Tony Verhulst wrote:
Bill Daniels wrote:

No winch? Buy or build one.


In the northeast US we have lots of trees and our airport is a
relatively narrow rectangular plot of cleared land surrounded by trees -
lots of trees. In any kind of cross wind, where would the winch rope
land after release? Right!

The glider grass runway is next to the paved runway used by the power
crowd. A paved taxiway leading from the paved rwy to the ramp crosses
the grass runway at midfield. The airport manager would, properly, be
not inclined to permit winch launching across an active taxiway.

There are lots of cases where a winch is not an option.

Tony V.

Our experience agrees with regulation. You need 30m (roughly 170 feet) between
the winch cable and the trees, and the winch cable and the runway. If you
measure you will probably find you do have enough space.

As for the cable landing in the trees, this depends on your design. We have a
huge open field, and a winch that is a bit slow on pickup/prone to looping. For
this situation we use a fighter (Dassault Mirage F1 FWIW) drag chute. This is
choked till it gives us a quick opening chute with a stable slow descent. When
you apply power, it comes down nice and controlled and keeps the cable under
tension, but in strong crosswinds it can have the cable only just clearing our
boundary fence about 250m away.

The general design is for a much smaller, heavier chute (700-800mm) that falls
much faster - and keeps the cable closer to where it was dropped. This of course
is the crux of the matter. A winch pilot who knows what he/she is doing will
launch upwind in a crosswind so that the cable falls toward the centreline. The
small chutes are made of a tough canvas and when they do land in bushes etc. the
general practice is to simply drag them free - making sure the area is clear and
it is safe to do so of course.

We simply do not launch if the crosswind component is too strong for safety. In
our case that is well before cable drift is a major problem.