At 09:43 AM 3/12/2000 -0500, you wrote:
<snip>
>...How about an intelligent feedback system built into the winch that
could sense a "breaking load" and compensate with resistance to
>the power output. Might be faster and smoother that human "toe to brain"
feedback and you could just lean down before launch and "dial
>in" your prefered power setting. Winches with Windows 2000!!
>
>Dave Malone
>
One of the members of my club, the Coffee Airfoilers, developed such a
winch about 25 years ag0. It was called a tension limiter and was
published in Sailplane about 1976 or 1977 and was later reprinted in RCM.
We used it for several years but finally gave up because of complaints from
modelers who wanted petal to the metal launches rather than learn to launch
properly. The winch was set to give 25 pounds of pull at the tow ring. We
added a bypass switch to disable the tension limiter and gave the
contestant the choice of launching with or without the limiter. If he
elected to launch without the tension limiter, he got no relaunch for
broken tow lines. We were able to use much lighter tow lines this way.
Main problems with using the tension limiter were the extra work and
maintaince. It was also necessary to frequently check the tension limiter
since drag on the ground line changed as the day went on, especially in the
morning when the grass was wet with dew.
The tension limiter was built on a frame that held the standard Airfoiler
winch so quick changes could be made if the winch needed to be changed. I
found the rusty remains of the tension limiter in the weeds behind my garage.
Chuck Anderson
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