Winch demo wanted near St Louis

On Friday, February 1, 2013 9:48:52 AM UTC-7, wrote:
And naysayers please note you cannot short power lines or cause a spark with modern spectra line. Ya for technology. Karen

Thanks, Karen. That's absolutely true. Among its many other superb attributes, UHMWPE is one of the best dielectric materials.

When making off field rope recoveries, often the best solution is to cut the rope wherever it's convenient to do so and bring it back in bundles. Trying to get it back in one piece can be more trouble than splicing it back together again.

Plastic rope weighs so little one person can carry it all. If you have some drawstring canvas bags, just dumping the rope into the bag hand over hand results in being able to just pull it out again without tangles. Making rope coils cowboy-style does tend to produce tangles.

When you get it back on the field, spend some time figuring out why the winch couldn't pull it all in before it got off field. This is not a problem which should happen if everything is working right.

More...do the winch operations that pull the light line for a retrieve winch have more control for a parachute drop in the case of a weak link break?

In a perfect world, its never a line break someplace else, but seems like if a chute took off crosswind after a link snapped, there's a little time to have the retrieve end to snag it back.

BTW. When we train winch drivers we have little contests "flying" the chute down to a specific spot in front of the winch. Some of them get pretty good after ten tries. (Our minimum requirement to operate the the fishing reel solo) Karen

On Friday, February 1, 2013 7:25:41 PM UTC-7, wrote:
More...do the winch operations that pull the light line for a retrieve winch have more control for a parachute drop in the case of a weak link break?



In a perfect world, its never a line break someplace else, but seems like if a chute took off crosswind after a link snapped, there's a little time to have the retrieve end to snag it back.



BTW. When we train winch drivers we have little contests "flying" the chute down to a specific spot in front of the winch. Some of them get pretty good after ten tries. (Our minimum requirement to operate the the fishing reel solo) Karen

Karen, retrieve winches do not use parachutes. If there is a rope break, each winch will have a portion of the rope to pull in. The retrieve rope attaches to the main rope about 100m in front the glider and the retrieve winch is positioned well to the side of the runway center line so the retrieve rope is never directly under the glider. A good retrieve winch operation has better control of the rope(s) than one using a parachute and no retrieve winch.

IFAIK, there are no retrieve winch operations in the US right now but two sites are close to testing of their new retrieve winch designs. Retrieve winch operations in the UK have claimed a sustained launch rate of one per minute as long as there are gliders in the launch queue. That may work out closer to one every two minutes but that's better than a couple of tow planes can do.

Before my time here. We did it again when the steel wire rope caught a tie down and made some sparks. The biggest fires have been set by the railroad.

Frank Whiteley

On Friday, February 1, 2013 9:02:47 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
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

On Friday, February 1, 2013 6:47:24 PM UTC-6, Dave Springford wrote:

How long is your field with the overrun?

Dave, our main runway is 2700' long, with a 500' displaced threshold at the south end and a 1200' field at the north end (that the club owns and could use if desired, with a little work). If you Google maps "Highland-Winet airport" you will see a good aerial shot of our field (including our tow planes and our L-13AC waiting for a tow (the Pawnee has just been refuelled). We have busy roads at both ends but no nearby powerlines - pretty much surrounded by open fields.

So, without any physical changes, we could use 3200' launching to the North by staging in the underrun, or South with the winch in the underrun. If we went to the effort of extending a takeoff runway/winch path to the North, we could add another 1000' or so our available distance.

Most of our glider ops takeoff to the North (towplanes land back to the south if winds are light).

Kirk 66

On 2/2/2013 11:01 AM, kirk.stant wrote:
So, without any physical changes, we could use 3200' launching to the North by staging in the underrun, or South with the winch in the underrun. If we went to the effort of extending a takeoff runway/winch path to the North, we could add another 1000' or so our available distance.


GBSC Occasionally winches out of 8b5 and have 3500 feet available with
the over run. On light wind days, get get about 1200 altitude - enough
to get out of town on a good day. IMHO, the extra 1000 ft available to
you would be worth it.

http://home.comcast.net/~verhulst/SO...oto_page_7.htm

Tony