AGCSC winch update

[Bryan Dyer]

Hello Everyone,

I was able to get ahold of the AGCSC soaring club in San Diego. If you
have not taken a look at the video yet on the Romans Design website I
would encourage you to do so. Here are some of the bullet points I
discussed with one of the senior members, Steve. This group has been
around since 1940 and have been using a winch since then.

- AGCSC currently has 4 winches in operation, this is there primary
source of launch because it only costs $10 a launch
- The winches were designed by Romans Design and is the leading
manufacturer of winches in the US, they are even starting to take over
business in England
- One winch takes around 4-5 months to build and costs $100,000, yes
100,000
- There are 4 other large soaring clubs that use winch launch
- Prescott, Arizona
- Orange County (But they are currently having problems with
theirs)
- El Toro (Long Beach)
- 29 Palms
- There are no winch FAA regulations, they use there own
regulations...he couldnt really tell me more
- Main problems w/ winch (many have been helped by using steel cable,
instead of other materials)
- underpowered engines
- tangles
- backlashes
- The site says they climb to 2000 ft in 50 s, he said in truth this
is about 1200-1600 ft
- Diesel engine about 300 hp, exactly what we are proposing unless the
design has been changed since last meeting
- Limitations of gliders that can be pulled has to do with hook
support and placement

I am currently going to be trying to contact the head of regional
soaring in Southern California to ask more questions and also am
planning on taking a look at the Roman Design facility in San Diego in
the near future. Even though this is something that is way out of our
price range and engineering expertise, I feel its a great way to get
an idea of how we are able to utilize these winches in California.
Anyone that would like to join me is more than welcome, they sounded
eager to teach and show off their manufactured winches. Ill talk more
about this next Thursday, have a great weekend.

[Bryan Dyer]

Hello All,

Take a quick look at the two posts on our google group about the AGCSC group in San Diego. The video on the Romans Design website is very informational on how this winch is used in Southern California.


--
Bryan Dyer
Aerospace Engineering Undergraduate Student
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
916-337-1194
brd...@calpoly.edu