Building an F3b legal winch

The first photo shows the whole winch less battery which is normally perminantly mounted on the winch but was taken off to enable the winch to be turned over for inspection.

Note the motor of this unit is a Lucus M50 that has been resistored down to come within the F3b specifications. The added resistor can be seen beneath the motor. The motor has deep groove ballraces in both the original back plate and the new front mounting plate.
The motor has had it's longer shaft cut off and an extention shaft with driving dogs and the "sprag"clutch mounted on it. This has enabled a design that allows quick removal of the winch drum in the event of a line tangle. Only one socket head screw has to be removed from the outrigger bearing support and the drum slides off. The drum is driven by a number of socket head screws as driving dogs. This unique feature also enables drum diameters to be changed quickly. With the right organization a drum and line has been changed and run out in 2 mins.
Five drums with sizes ranging from 48mm to 100 mm have been
made to test the winch in conditions from flat calm to blowing like
all heck....

To the right of the motor is the control gear that gives three speeds or powers for launching. Using this speed control the winch has launched RCHLG's with no problems.
The controller consists of three solenoids that are operated by the foot switch in the forground. This switch has three micro switches operated by a cam plunger to depress the switches. The three micro's are operated in sequence, low, medium and high power, so that all of the speeds can be selected during launch. The foot switch plugs into the motor control with a four pin plug that is locked firmly into position with a locknut during use.

The top of the two switches on the controller turns off the whole unit so that the winch will not turn on if the foot switch is stepped on accidently. The bottom switch turns off high power.
On the top of the controller two resistors can be seen. These regulate the low and medium speeds and can be easily changed to enable lighter models to be launched.
The aluminium cover of the controller is to stop the electronics from getting wet. Two of the solenoids can be seen protruding from under it at the right hand end.
The tube to the right is for carrying the turn around pulley when moving the winch. This consists of a shielded pulley mounted with a flexible cable and steady spring to the top af a star dropper stake.
A towing handle is provided with a bayonet type connection to make it easy to move the winch around the field but easily removeable for use.

Important points to design into you winch to enable reliability and easy of use.