Winch cable length?

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KipperUK
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Winch cable length?

Post by KipperUK » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:10 pm

Is it possible to set the position of the winch / length of the cable being used?

On the North UK scenery, the Sutton Bank winch cable comes out of the top of a forest on hood hill, beyond the airfield. In reality, we only winch to about 500ft and I would like to be able to force that in the game.

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EDB
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by EDB » Wed Jan 02, 2019 7:06 pm

Is currently not possible.
Currently small airports are not supported very well in many aspects. It's better to not add them in a landscape.

KipperUK
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by KipperUK » Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:51 pm

What other aspects don't work well, for reference? I haven't really noticed anything else thus far.

Our airfield may have a short winch run due to safety reasons and being surrounded by a public footpath, but it's a fairly big club in the UK so it would be good to be able to get it feeling realistic.

The only other problem I've had is aircraft starting half way down the runway; so you can't see the windsock on top of the clubhouse, or the launchpoint - presumably that's to account for large grid launches, but on non grid days, we'd launch from the 'back' of an imagined grid rather than the front..

It would be good if perhaps markers could be set in the airport model file, to denote where aircraft sit on grid launches, and where the winch would be positioned, and then all is well.

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EDB
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by EDB » Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:45 pm

Just one example. The biggest problem.

Start-location in Condor is based on the center of the runway with a one line start-row. Resulting in a runway that is shorter then in real life. So if you have a 400m runway with trees around the strip... forget aerotow with a heavy two-seater and a so so tow plane. And because aerotow looks to be the standard in Condor, you have to get aerotow working with any glider and tow plane on an airfield.

Runways shorter then 800m are already problematic. I use 1000m up to 1200m as minimum. Depending on surroundings.

You can make landscapes with airport limits and inform them in a readme file... But be aware of the fact that no-one reads readme files. Only people that write readme's do.

KipperUK
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by KipperUK » Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:06 pm

To be fair, just because the program would let you try to launch a heavy two seater behind a so-so tug from a 400m runway surrounded by trees, doesn't mean that it's inadvisable. In some respects, if it's realistic enough, this is exactly the kind of environment you want to try these things, rather than out on the real airfield wondering if you're going to make it :)

That could be easily fixed by having a notam.txt file for each airport, so that any interesting warning info displayed when you selected the airport as a take-off point - leaving it up to the pilots judgement as to what aircraft (if any) they decide to fly.

The winch positioning and short run doesn't cause a problem in real life; because it's only used to throw people onto the ridge at about 500' on windy days, so by being able to move the winch, that could pretty easily be replicated and again, it's at a persons own judgement. In reality, some hate our winch run and won't use it! I get slightly freaked out by long, flat airfields and long winch cables because I'm not used to them :P

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EDB
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by EDB » Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:16 pm

KipperUK wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:06 pm
That could be easily fixed by having a notam.txt file for each airport, so that any interesting warning info displayed when you selected the airport as a take-off point - leaving it up to the pilots judgement as to what aircraft (if any) they decide to fly.
This might be possible too. I can add it to my wish-list, but the wish-list is long... so don't expect it to be implemented any time soon or at all. Maybe other changes will make it obsolete in the future. Who knows...
I personally was thinking about adding airport-names to the landscape.ini so that the aerotow option would be blocked in NOTAM. Now I sometimes give the airport-name a 'NoTow' suffix or prefix as a work around.

Winch goes fine in Condor. Even when the winch is floating somewhere.

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Eugene Williams
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Re: Winch cable length?

Post by Eugene Williams » Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:37 am

I'd also like to see this happen. I'm currently preparing a scenery for Japan, and ALL of our glider runways are short. Most of these runways are along a river bank, and the winch usually ends up in the water. Either that or our tugs end up in the forest.
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