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In order to get a glider into the air, you either need a powered plane to tow you, or set up a winch. A tow plane is very expensive, so I decided to have a winch built. Jonathan Tayamora, a paraglider pilot here in the Philippines, happened to be a gifted engineer. Jonathan’s winch appears to be a masterpiece of glider winches. It is powerful, yet mechanically very simple. Acceleration is smooth, controls are easy to handle. The shifting mechanism for both drums is his invention. He converted a truck differential. We have installed a 1000m steel cable, locally sourced. The winch is installed on an Isuzu Elf truck. The engine comes from an Isuzu 320hp turbocharged diesel truck. We could buy a second hand Voith fluid turbo coupling to dampen the acceleration. Unfortunately Jonathan passed away in 2021. We will keep him always in our minds, as without him, we could not fly. You can see the winch operating in this documentary: my youTube01 my youTube02 |