Small, virtually free winch for small gliders

[flystoolow]

My flying buddy (a real thinker) made himself an excellent little winch for small gliders (like the GP fling).

He took an old spin-casting fishing reel (they are geared about 6:1), cut the handle mostly off and mounted the remaining stub into the chuck of a cordless drill. The set-up is mounted on a little plywood board and uses very light line. A simple bent lever is mounted in such a way that when you step on one end, the other end depresses the drill's trigger.

Very nice little winch, the plane zooms right up.

[slopemeno]

Pictures!

[vic20owner]

yes pictures!

[Twizter68]

That's 3 votes for pictures; you are now required by FAI by-laws to provide them!

(not really, but they'd be nice to see, anyway!)

[Oldcoot2]

And for those of us who are tinkerers who want to copy and possibly improve on the concept!!! :D
Gerald

[BMatthews]

What about a mini highstart? Although the winch sounds cute and effective I've had great luck launching my 50 inch span 12 hand launch using a single loop of 1/4 flat rubber about 15 feet long tied to a 100 foot length of 10 lb test monofilament. In even the lightest head wind it zooms up and pings off the top. In dead air it lifts about 1/2 the rubber off the ground at the top.

You can get a 1/2 lb of rubber which is enough to make two highstarts from FAI Model Supply for around $10.