[LASS Soaring] Big winches/line not being friendly to newbies?

[Ryan Woebkenberg]

At the CSS Pumpkin fly in October I met up with a new to contesting pilot via rcgroups.  His handle on rcgroups is "Kentucky Glider" and his folks live near cincy, but he is a UK freshman (I also gave him AJ's email address so perhaps he'll hook up with the Lexington pilots sometime in the Spring).  I had convinced him to enter the contest and I think he had a pretty good time at the contest (as did I, but then I normally have a pretty good time).  He had a Gentle Lady and we had a pretty difficult time launching it at the contest.  It was pop off city for him and I did try to get some other guys to help (had Ed Franz help out some) with the same results, ~50 foot launches.  I was sort of not expecting this because when I started contesting in 1996, my first winch launch contest was the "Nats Warmup" hosted by LASS and back then, I had a Gentle Lady (perhaps a bit stronger built than Kentucky Glider's), but I had no problem launching it on the winches that were common then.  I flew it at the LASS contests, at Cinci Pumpkin Flies, and at the Nats, etc.  I always tapped it up, and although my launches were not as high as the other pilots, I still got it up there pretty good without pop offs.  But back then it seemed either the lines were lighter (well, they were) or the winches were weaker.  I sort of think the biggest problem for the Gentle Lady at the CSS this year was the strength of the winches.  Each tiny tap on the pedal caused such a high amount of line to pull in it was like we could not regulate the tension enough to not pop off.  
 
The best solution I think on the day was he did have a high start with him, and the Cinci guys were cool enough to let him set that up for the last round (we really did try to get it to winch up there).   His plane high started great.  
 
I guess I'm asking if any of you all have other suggestions if I find myself in a similar situation in the future when helping out a new pilot at a contest.  Probably best solution would have been to get him out to a practice day or something rather than trying to winch first time at a contest.    
 
Ryan
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