Oct - Rcsoaring.com

Launch! Tension the line, stomp on the launch mechanism, and it’s off!You can already see the ’wing rotating into a climb.Finally, last fall I recruited good friend BillHoelcher to run the winch for me, and Ihauled the KW and foot pedal launcherout the club’s new flying field. Late in theday we gave it a try. We lined up directlyinto the wind and checked throws for thecontrol surfaces. The CG control wasfull forward. Bill tensioned up the club’ssecond-line winch (The Wimpy Winch ofthe West as we call it). At Bill’s command,I hit the foot pedal and the KW100zoomed off the launch rails.That first launch was smooth, fast andlow. Bill and I have since learned how tolaunch a bit higher, but even at its bestthe KW100 does not do the near verticallaunches that we are used to seeingfrom our sailplanes. I flew around thefield a couple of times, dropped the flapsand landed. We did a couple of morelaunches with similar results. It was toolate in the day to find decent thermals,so we called it a day, happy with the firstwinch launches, only a decade after theKW’s purchase.(I should add here a note about Bill’swinch technique. The Wimpy Winch ofthe West is an old second hand unit, andbelt driven. It will launch large sailplanes,but it is not a zoomer. Bill just tensions62 R/C Soaring Digest