A small group of us flew on Thursday – Christmas Eve including Allan, Rich, Jody, Ed, Rick and myself. A good friend Tim Gess from MI was in town and wanted to show us the most recent developments of his self launching device (the OneWinch) for sailplanes. I had tried launching my OnyxJW with the device with Tim in March and it worked well but needed more improvements which Tim had made and was now ready to test it out again with some big ships. Thursday was very windy which dented the enthusiasm of Ed trying to trim his new Ava but Rich, Al and Rick were flying and I also used the opportunity to get some stick time on my High End. I found some great lift in the windy conditions and got a good 25 minut flight in. Rick launched his 2M Laser with Tim’s self launcher a few times with Rich Kiburis doing the towing. The launches went very well achieving launch heights which looked equivalent to a good winch launch. After a couple of winch launches with my High End we decided to try Tim’s launcher with a “big ship”. Once again Rich did the “towing.” I was only at about 150 feet when something broke on the apparatus and Rich pulling hard on the device was struck in the back with the end of the towing twine. Struck pretty hard too apparently as it left some nasty welts even through his pullover. Clearly the towing system worked extremely well but needs a little beefing up in a few places. Tim has a great concept which allows excellent launches either on your own or with someone towing. The cause of failure has been addressed. (In addition to using 350# snap rings Tim has also encased the end of the line in a braided dacron sleeve, before tying the knot. This greatly relieves the “stress riser” that occurs when you knot a line.)
We called it a day around noon and packed up to go home and get ready for christmas.
Gordon
