All those new winches
All those new winches which are standing idle could be a thorn in the side of operations when they do resume. They have an engine which is new to the winch and a type of cable new to the cadets. With everyone a bit rusty after the long layoff, throwing in a new bit of kit, which is bound to have its own idiosyncracies, is likely to result in delays just when everyone is anxious to launch as many cadets as possible.
The designers at Skylaunch will have used their experience to build the Air Cadets a new winch which is as ergonomic and trouble-free as possible. Only after a few hundred launches, however, in a wide variety of wind conditions plus all the possible failure cases, can a winch driver be confident to make the right decisions and pull the right levers at the right time.
To the best of my knowledge there are no winch simulators on which to practice the many failure cases, so it could take a good while before winch drivers experience the bulk of them. If the winch driver gets it wrong, at best it might be a snarl up on the cable drum, putting that drum out of action for half an hour; at worst, it could result in the glider flying into the winch parachute or cable.
By siting the new winches at BGA and Service clubs until the Vikings are ready, a few thousand launches could be made across the fleet, building up a substantial track record for the type, thus ensuring that when they start launching cadets, both winch drivers and winches are known quantities.
As a the old adage says, 'Amateurs practice till they get it right, professionals practice till they can't get it wrong'.
Last edited by Mechta; 16th Nov 2015 at 08:53.