This should make most power pilots have kittens...

Finally, we got a break in the weather this weekend (it's been lousy
here for a while, no flying...)

At our glider club, we can either use the tow plane or the winch to get
the gliders in the air. Not many power pilots have come across the idea
of flinging an aircraft airborne on the best part of a mile of steel
piano wire, but we do this crazy thing. [Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator].

Anyway, I made a short video of a winch launch at our club. The winch
itself is powered by an inline 6 double overhead cam engine taken from a
4.2 litre Jaguar XJ6. The engine and running gear is mounted on the back
of a truck. It powers a drum of steel cable, and the glider is attached
on the other end. The 4.2L Jag engine has lots of power which results in
spectacular acceleration of the glider.

The video clip is at:
http://www.alioth.net/Video/Winch-launch.mp4 (MPEG-4 format)

(If you don't have the right codec etc. either use QuickTime or download
the excellent free/open source VLC from http://www.videolan.org)

Our next winch will use synthetic rope which is a fraction of the weight
of steel cable (I think the entire run of synthetic rope will only weigh
around 20kg). It will also be powered by an electronic fuel injected Jaguar
V12 engine which came courtesy of last year's hurricane force storm
which collapsed a garage on top of the donor car, completely flattening
the roof and cabin area of the car, but leaving all the running gear
completely intact :-)

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net

[Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator]

How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

This cable is attached to the nose of the glider and will remain attached
until the glider pilot pulls the cable release lever. The cable will be
towed aloft with the glider and if the pilot gets off in a thousand feet,
you've still got 4000 feet of cable between glider and ground.

Jim


"Jose" wrote in message
...
[Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator]

How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Jose" wrote in message
...
[Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator]

How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Think of running with a kite to get it up. One of the cable is hooked to
the glider, the other end is at the winch (4 or 5 thousand feet away) which
winds it in at 30 - 60 mph. 20-30 seconds later, the glider is at 2000 feet
or so over the winch and drops the end of the cable.

--
Geoff
the sea hawk at wow way d0t com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
Spell checking is left as an excercise for the reader.

This cable is attached to the nose of the glider and will remain attached
until the glider pilot pulls the cable release lever. The cable will be
towed aloft with the glider and if the pilot gets off in a thousand feet,
you've still got 4000 feet of cable between glider and ground.

1: Does the other end remain attached to the ground?
2: When does the pilot normally pull the release lever?

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Great video!!
I noticed that the skin was kind of beat up around the landing gear and
tow attach. Wheel up grass landing or something?

John

On 2005-11-14, Jose wrote:
[Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator]

How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

The video should explain quite nicely, the cable is very visible
on that. However, normally, without the sunset glinting off the steel,
it's quite invisible until it's too late. The glider pilot may have a
hard time spotting you during the middle stage of the launch since the
glider will be pitched 45 degrees or more nose up.

It's not that the cable will necessarily get to that altitude (but one club
in France has exceeded 3,000 feet on a winch launch, more normally, a
winch launch gets the glider up to between 1,000 and 1,600 feet,
although at our club we've managed a launch of 2,200 ft). Many clubs
also use tow planes, and the tow plane+glider combination (which is
fairly unmanoevrable) generally go up to about that height. Towplanes
may also be doing semi-aerobatic manoevres to get down quickly so they
can go get the next glider - it can be like flies around a cowturd at a
busy gliderport, especially if an event is going on (towplanes, gliders,
winch launches all going on simultaneously).

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 12:06:28 -0500, "Capt. Geoffry Thorpe" The Sea
Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote:

"Jose" wrote in message
m...
[Power pilots - whenever you see
the glider port symbol on your chart, remember that there may be a winch
there. They are less common in the US than over here, but they are used
in the US, and the 1/8th inch steel cable will not be kind to you if you
run into it. Never directly overfly gliderports below 3000' without
talking to their radio operator]

How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

Jose
--
He who laughs, lasts.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Think of running with a kite to get it up. One of the cable is hooked to
the glider, the other end is at the winch (4 or 5 thousand feet away) which
winds it in at 30 - 60 mph. 20-30 seconds later, the glider is at 2000 feet
or so over the winch and drops the end of the cable.

Ok I'm trying to visualize a winch sucking up cable at 88 feet/second
(60 mph) and 2000 feet of cable accelerating toward the ground at 32
ft/sec^2. And I'm thinking of my experience fishing with cheap
bait-casting reels. Does it ever get interesting? Anybody on the
ground ever lose significant body parts? How is the behavior of
synthetic rope going to differ from metal cable?

Don (Not asking snidely, but more in awe.)

Nice dramaturgy! However, when it comes to winch launch videos, nothing
beats this ever funny documentation of the first trial flight of a
pedestrian.
http://home.balcab.ch/stefan/wetter/Schnupperflug.mpeg

(Caution, 11 MB!)

Stefan

Jose wrote:
How is this cable used, and why would it extend up three thousand feet?

have you played with kites when a kid? a bit the same way, but
using a very powerful engine instead of just running holding
the wire (though that technique, running holding the wire,
can also be used, albeit towing it with a car, done it as
well :-) The thing about the warning the previous poster
mentioned: the glider can be sitting on the ground still, and
a minute or two later, be flying full speed at 3000' (rates
of climb to kill for :-); which could be a surprise to the
unsuspecting power pilot overflying the field already, but
the cable might be even more of a surprise as well...
(seriously, if you have a glider port with a winch in your
vicinity, and you never experienced a winch launch, ask for a
ride!)

--Sylvain