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| The Winch | |
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Cross Country Soaring also has a winch! This page contains some images of the "winch clinic" we held May 19-21, 2008. While winches are routinely used in much of the world to launch gliders, they are pretty rare in the U.S. with perhaps fewer than a dozen sites nation-wide. Winches are fast, economical, quiet (compared to a tow plane), simpler maintenance, fun and GREEN (one quart of fuel gets a sailplane to 2000AGL). Did I mention fun? Here we are getting ready for another launch. They each take less than a minute from 'initial ground roll' to 'parachute back on the ground'. And what a ride! Here we are set up a few hundred feet off the end of runway 30 with the 330HP winch and 5200 feet (a mile!) of Hi-Tech Spectra rope on the drum. | |
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CROSS COUNTRY SOARING, INC.
Lots of help form the workshop crew. |
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Welcome to Cross Country Soaring, Inc.
It goes up like a kite...a big, big kite. |
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Rides
We started the day with introductions and a little classroom theory from Bill Daniels. Bill came out from Colorado to mentor us in flying the glider during a winch launch. Bill has been winching for many years and is a CFIG (instructor). |
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Gift Certificates
Frank Whiteley, also out from Colorado, was our expert winchmeister. He first started winching in England over 20 years ago and is a passionate advocate. Here he gives us the basics before we position the winch. Both Bill and Frank were top notch, with extensive knowledge of the subject, a ton of experience, great attitudes and obvious skill. We have made hundreds of smooth launches since their visit. |
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Instruction
During our first few launches we found some splices in the rope that we decided to re-do. Rope breaks are rare, as with aero-tow, but when they do occur, they are handled easily by the pilot due to the length of the runway ahead and the altitude so quickly attained. |
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Staging #1. |
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Scholarship Fund
Locked and loaded. |
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0-60 in about three seconds. What a great feeling. |
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Videos
Just airborne. Click HERE for a short video of the launch. |
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Pictures at an Exhibition
Already enough speed to begin rotation into a 45 degree climb. |
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Directions
About 40 seconds later the Grob 103 is at 2000AGL. |
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Site Map
The connecting ring back-releases automatically when the winch reduces power at the top of the climb. The pilot can also pull the release if desired. |
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Contact Us
The parachute is then reeled in... |
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Buy Now Page
And dropped with precision. |
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Your Glider Rating
Steve Wheeler's Ask-21 grids next. This is Steve's first winch ride, too. Bill usually demonstrates a few launches before handing the controls over to the student pilot. |
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Time and Cost
Fast start. |
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The Perfect Terrain
The 21 gets a nice high launch! Glider pilots wishing to obtain a ground-launch endorsement, or ANYONE wishing to experience an exhilarating and memorable ride, are most welcome. I post the winch launching days on "The Daily Schedule" (click the "Calendar&Links" page below). We do aero-tow on these days also. |
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