ClayH
Jun 30, 2008, 02:06 PM
Our club , EDSF, hosted the SC2 event for June at the ISS site in Riverside California. It was quite a test of challenging conditions(100 degrees+) and inconsistent lift, but in the end,as usual, fun was had by all.
This was our first opportunity to run the Brandon 2048 winch and Retriever 2000 combo in a competitive environment. It was one of the three winches we set up to handle the 27 competitiors in the contest.We had a line tangle between the spool and bearing plate on the second launch because the pilot stayed on the power long after his plane came off. Once that tangle was clear, the winch performed great throughout the day. We had planes from Gentle Ladies to Sharons and Shadows launching and everyone who used the winch liked it. For many pilots it was the winch of choice for the four round event.
We did have a couple of line breaks on the retriever, but otherwise the retriever worked very well as well. Jim had designed the line guide hub to be on an arm that folds out of the way during the launch, then you fold it into the retrieve position to begin the retrieve . I didn't know that we were supposed to do this until a loose loop came off the retriever and caught the top of the guide hub axle bolt during the launch, causing a pop-off. Once I realized that the folding arm wasn't just to make the unit more compact for storage, we had a great day with a lot of very easily controlled retrieves. I really like the fact that the retriever uses a 12 volt battery, so there's no need to to carry arround those very heavy 6 volt Trojans!
I want to thank Jim again for coming out with some really great launch equipment. Everytime I carry it from the front seat of my car to the flight line I'm amazed at how compact and light this winch is compared to the winches I've used in the past. It is truely a one winch for all airframes. You can check out the equipment at:
http://www.theshope.net/store.aspx
Clay
This was our first opportunity to run the Brandon 2048 winch and Retriever 2000 combo in a competitive environment. It was one of the three winches we set up to handle the 27 competitiors in the contest.We had a line tangle between the spool and bearing plate on the second launch because the pilot stayed on the power long after his plane came off. Once that tangle was clear, the winch performed great throughout the day. We had planes from Gentle Ladies to Sharons and Shadows launching and everyone who used the winch liked it. For many pilots it was the winch of choice for the four round event.
We did have a couple of line breaks on the retriever, but otherwise the retriever worked very well as well. Jim had designed the line guide hub to be on an arm that folds out of the way during the launch, then you fold it into the retrieve position to begin the retrieve . I didn't know that we were supposed to do this until a loose loop came off the retriever and caught the top of the guide hub axle bolt during the launch, causing a pop-off. Once I realized that the folding arm wasn't just to make the unit more compact for storage, we had a great day with a lot of very easily controlled retrieves. I really like the fact that the retriever uses a 12 volt battery, so there's no need to to carry arround those very heavy 6 volt Trojans!
I want to thank Jim again for coming out with some really great launch equipment. Everytime I carry it from the front seat of my car to the flight line I'm amazed at how compact and light this winch is compared to the winches I've used in the past. It is truely a one winch for all airframes. You can check out the equipment at:
http://www.theshope.net/store.aspx
Clay