Originally Posted by OpenCirrus619
Instructor: "Go and drive the winch"
Volunteer: "I'm scared"
Instructor: "Never been anyone killed that end of the cable"
Was there no training at all for a winch driver!? True, a glider pilot can abort the launch by dumping the cable if he is unhappy, but will a student pilot reliably do so? Also, one can do a little bit of damage driving a winch beside that. I have heard about bicyclists on a road beside the glider strip getting caught straight off their bike by the cable parachute after the winch driver failed to pull in the falling rope sufficiently fast; another one removed a fence post or two. So there surely must be some insurance requirement around. Also, who teaches the winch driver to splice a broken cable, handle the various malfunctions and - not to forget - drive the often rather rustic truck the winch is mounted upon? A 1960s truck with a non-synchronized gearbox and pneumatic brakes is a bit different from todays cars most people are used to: an uninitiated person would likely not even get the engine started or stopped.
In my club, every aspiring winch driver had to do 150 tows on at least 10 days under supervision of one of the nominated trainers, then pass a test consisting of 10 tows, a theoretical examination and two splices (a broken cable and an eye) with an examiner. Then, one would receive the winch license. From that moment on, one would spend half a flying day on the winch every 4-6 weeks according to schedule, and be allowed to fly not only K13 and K8, but also the plastic types.