Paragliding, that's what they do in the mountains, right?
Nope, we launch from the flat ground with the help of a winch. Our new winch is an Elowin with 2 electric winch modules and a 14.4 kWh LiFePO4 battery for ca. 70-120 starts depending on the wind.
Our winch was delivered as a pre-mounted construction kit and the rest of the outfitting was done by our club. That was a lot of work, but clearly worth it.
The winch has 12 kW power, which is enough for tandem starts and we can use step-towing. The main advantage of the new winch is the much improved force regulation leading to higher saftey for our tows. In addition slightly higher release heights can be achieved.
For the pilots this requires a small adaptation as the pre-tension on the line at start is less (more safety) and thermik is felt slightly differently and more dampened during the tow.
Our old Koch IV winch is kept as a back-up.
Photographs of our old setup:
