Definitely BEWARE when accepting a winch cable in your glider, your hand MUST be on the release because if a wing drops and the glider cartwheels there have been fatalities and the poor basket never even got off the ground.
Winch cables are bloody dangerous. To spectators, passersby, and to power planes that ignorantly fly over a gliding site. One power pilot departed our airfield after visiting (we think) a local pub, and he flew through the wire as a glider was being launched; why his wing didn't get sawed off I will never know. The pillock should have landed immediately. Instead of which he blithely flew back to Wellesbourne. I wonder how he explained the damage to the flying club?
Neighbouring our gliding site is a very active karting circuit. Wind may blow cables over the track....so we have to choose a different runway and accept a crosswind.
I learned to fly at Booker, on aerotow, then moved to Shenington near Banbury and used to be totally freaked out by winch launching. The acceleration is astonishing. But I did get used to it, and ended up as an instructor having to teach winch launching. This never fails to bring out the sadist in the instructor (me too!) because when the pupil is getting near solo, he will have a LOT of practice winch failures. The instructor tries to be as sneaky as possible before pulling the release.
My favorite way of making the pupil suffer was to tell him that on the next launch we would have a practice launch failure.
And then I wouldn't. All the way to the top of the launch, maybe 1,200 or 1,400 feet, the poor guy is expecting the "BANG!" of the simulated cable break, most likely at the most awkward height for what do you do next! and it doesn't happen.
The lesson is it COULD happen at any moment, so one should be ready and have a plan of action ahead of time.
We used to winch using piano wire, and that was horrid for the poor winch driver, it frequently broke, and descended over the cab of the winch like spaghetti. Best thing for the pilot to do in this case was to soar for at least an hour until he got over it!
I was a towplane pilot, so declined to learn to drive the winch, at my age I shouldn't be having to wrestle splicing the braided steel cable we use now. We considered using the fancy new plastic line called Dynema, but it lays out on the top of the grass when taken to the glider, and is much more likely to be picked up if a glider or car or whatever has to cross over the wire. Which you do not do if it is at all likely to be suddenly in use.
The new winches are very simple, I am told. We used to employ a retired and possibly classic German Fire Engine converted into a winch that served us well for years.
Some clubs use a light signal. We use radio to the winch; once the glider lifts into the air, the winch driver is keeping an eye on it, and if you need to call STOP (anyone can do this if they see danger) he would not be looking at the light. Paddles were used in the olden days.
The drill for the wingtip holder, who MUST be trained and alert, is to carefully look around above and behind and in front in case there are gliders soaring over the winch. If OK to go, he levels the wings. Then naming which cable is being used, he says
"Launch to winch, K13, Take up Slack!" The winch driver stops reading his magazine, starts the engine, and slowly draws in the cable until the wingtip holder (or whoever is doing the radio) says and signals with his OTHER arm
"ALL OUT ALL OUT!!" The winch driver floors the throttle and the glider accelerates incredibly fast, rotates when it is safe to do so, and goes for the ride up the wire.
We know the back release works, we test it first launch every day. There are different weak links on the cable according to the weight of the glider.
Red, Blue, or Black. And we hope that the winch driver knows how to use the guilllotine......
though I know of no time when it has been used! except by mistake.
If the glider is then dragging the cable, and can't drop it, it probably wont make all that difference to the performance if he keeps his speed up when turning toward the pre-selected landing spot. If it drags over a fence or trees, that probably won't yank very much....I've done it with a tow plane.
Any questions?