There has been a lot of interest in the electric winch designed by Jürgen Volk for the German based company, Ulbrich Industrie Electronik. The first version was used last summer by the Bad Neuenahr Gliding Club in Germany and their CFI, Klaus Fey, wrote a report for the German magazine Luftsport which Albert Hengelaar of the Netherlands had kindly translated for us. The photos were taken by Klaus. As a result of favourable tests an improved design is being built to go on show at the Aero 2003 Exhibition at Friedrichshafen, Germany, in April.

Does the new electric winch (ESW 2B) fulfil the soaring pilot’s dream of perfect winch launches? How reliable is the new technology and can it be used successfully by winch drivers and glider pilots? Since last May we have been using the first production winch during normal club operations and this report gives an idea of our experience. For some time we have been trying to decide how to replace the old winches when news came of an electric winch in use at a club in Polheim near Giessen, Germany. We quickly arranged an appointment to test it. Three of our instructors and an experience winch driver went to Giessen and found the tows and the simplicity to operate the machine made it downright exciting. But on the way home the first doubts popped up. What will happen when the electricity or electronic set up fails? How will our winch drivers adapt to the changes? How will the winch survive tough club use? Who will maintain and repair it? These questions were also raised at a special club meeting in December 2001. We were lucky that Jürgen Volk, the designer, offered us the first production winch for a long term test period and it came to our airfield at Bengener Heide straight after the roll out in May 2002. The necessary mains on the winch point still was not available so we rented a diesel generator with a minimum production of 10kW, which ensures a minimum of ten two-seater launches per hour. Jürgen tried to convince us to lay a cable. In our case this would mean four 1200 metre lengths of 16mm2 copper cable which would cost 3000 euro for the cable alone. This was too big a decision for the committee and until now an unreliable combustion generator supplies it with the necessary electricity. But if members agree to buy the winch we will put in the cable to enjoy the full benefit of this type of operation. Members were able to test the enormous power and the comfort of the new winch. First of all the acceleration from standstill. The K-21 and Duo-Discus are airborne after two to three fuselage lengths of ground run. After that the pilot just has to maintain the right speed and climb angle - with the K-21 about 100 km/h and with the Duo a little more. The achieved heights are astonishing. Without wind and with just 930m of cable we reached at least<