Launching Facilities

Launch Control

We have reciently aquired and converted a Shorts 330 fuselarge as a launch control facility and briefing room. This is towed out each morning to the end of which ever runway the gliders will be launched from. It is used for log keeping, launch control (signaling the winch when the glider is ready) and has facilities for flight briefing pilots and visitors.

Our new Skylaunch winch has now been delivered and is in operation (2006). It is simply a 8.2 litre V8 engine running on lpg mounted on a chassis which drives two drums containing about 1km of cable on each. The winch driver (sitting in a protected cab) engages the required drum and then smoothly and rapidly pulls in the cable that is attached to the glider at the far end of the airfield. The glider then gains height until it is almost over the winch at about 1000ft. The winch driver then cuts the power and the glider pilot releases the cable and enters free flight.
Meanwhile the cable, which has a parachute attached to the end, is then fully wound in to the winch and the next launch, using the other drum of the two, is started.
When both cable ends are at the winch, a tractor is used to pull them both, along the full length of the runway back to the glider launch point.

To drive the winch, you have to be a solo pilot and undergo several training sessions to learn how to give a good and safe launch.

The Tug. (Aerotow Launch)

There are several types of tug available in the gliding world, we have two, a Super Cub & a Pawnee.

An aerotow launch commences with the glider hooked on to a 25 metre rope which is attached to the tugs tail. Through a system of signals the tug pilot slowly takes up the slack in the rope and then when this is tight, then applies full power. The glider becomes airborne behind the tug and then the combination climbs away.
The main advantage to aerotow launching over winch launching is the fact that the glider pilot can release at any height, and if organised with the tug pilot in advance, any place. The winch of course only can give a launch between 1000 and 1500 ft over the end of the runway.

All tug pilots have to be in posession of a P.P.L. which means that ordinary members cannot be tug pilots until they have this power licence.