Skylaunch Limited

23/02/2026

Skylaunch will be exhibiting at the BGA conference in Holywell Park Conference Centre, Loughborough University this Saturday the 28th February.

Please come and see us at our stand!

https://members.gliding.co.uk/bga-sporting-conference-2026/

11/11/2025

Mike’s winter winching holidays. Skylaunch-upgraded Tost winch using club labour. First test launches.

11/11/2025

Mike’s winter winching holidays!

Will your club be next?

Skylaunch can offer conversion and upgrade of Tost 04 winches to Skylaunch standards, creating Skylaunch results, with much of the labour provided by your club. This is typically undertaken during the winter period.

A plan of work is agreed, with a split between club work and Skylaunch work.

Your club can strip and prepare your Tost 04 winch before Mike arrives.

Skylaunch will prepare all required parts and bring them on our trailer.

The photos below show 1 week of intensive work shared between Mike and Kranich club during winter 2024/25. By the weekend we were doing test launches. The winch has since done launches to over 900m with K21 from a 1400m run (in a good headwind of course, but launches were similarly impressive in nil wind).

This can be a very cost-effective way to upgrade your winch to modern performance and reliability levels at sensible cost. We use your existing winch as a base for the project and club labour to keep costs down.

Please contact us if you have a Tost 04 winch that would benefit from some Skylauch re-engineering magic this Winter.

24/10/2025

“Dear Mike,

We tested the winch extensively yesterday and today after the new adjustment. I personally had the pleasure of doing most of the tows myself.
My conclusion: everything is perfect! The winch was already easy to operate before, but now it’s even easier to handle.

As I already told you back in April: this winch was made by winch operators, for winch operators.

Everything’s great, everything’s perfect!
If you’re ever in the area, get in touch with us! You’ll get the chance to tow with the best winch ever built on this planet.”

A big thank you to Andreas Breidenbach, winch driver at Menden-Barge in Germany, for his personal feedback after we recently applied the latest updates to his club’s EVO Electro Cordless winch. It was our pleasure to work with the Menden team to achieve results worthy of this fantastic feedback. Thank you Andreas!

24/10/2025

07/04/2025

With Aero 2025 fast approaching, Skylaunch can now announce prices for the Skylaunch EVO Electro. This winch has proven Skylaunch mechanicals, with electric drive.

The winch is available as a Plug-in or Cordless version, to suit the needs of your airfield and club.

The winch has been developed by the usual team of Skylaunch engineers, winch drivers and pilots, with further contributions from electronics, motor-drive and battery experts. This ensures we can offer the best electric winch available, both mechanically and electronically. The core Skylaunch team, after many years of working with V8-engined winches, have gained significant expertise in electronic systems themselves during this process also.

Launches are super-smooth, safe and can achieve the standard Skylaunch benchmark of 40-45% of launch run length in nil wind. Operation is simple, straightforward and repeatable, with torque-controlled launching giving accurate speed control in the climb.

Servicing is much reduced compared with combustion-engined models. Energy use is typically 0.8-1.5kWh per launch depending on glider type and runway length. The Plug-in winch needs a power supply point at the end of the runway. The Cordless winch can launch all day, then charge overnight, or launch at the weekend and solar-charge during the week for zero energy-cost launching.

It is great to add this latest Cordless model to our line-up and we are pleased to see such enthusiasm for it at Menden-Barge airfield during delivery training last weekend.

2025 Prices Skylaunch EVO Electro

Plug-in model £183,000.

Cordless model £228,000.

Come and see us at Aero A-105 to find out more about our products.

Come and see our electric winches in operation at…..

Chanet, France
Skylaunch 3 Electric Plug-in original model
Delivered 2011

Grambeker-Heide, Germany
Skylaunch EVO Electro Plug-in
Delivered 2022

Menden-Barge, Germany
Skylaunch EVO Electro Cordless
Delivered 2025

07/04/2025

The Skylaunch team are now back in the UK after a very successful delivery weekend at Menden-Barge airfield, Germany. This is the first EVO Electro Cordless winch and we are very pleased with the results.

From Friday afternoon until Sunday evening, training and learning was conducted. This was both on the winch itself, and how to best operate it to suit the sloping airfield, with 60m height difference between winch and launch point.

From the beginning, the winch cab was full of glider pilots, and there were lots of launches for them to get used to their new machine.

Thanks to all involved, at both Skylaunch and Menden, for a successful weekend. Thanks also to Seighford and Lasham for hosting the UK testing and development.

05/04/2025

Skylaunch are proud to be at Menden-Barge airfield near Dortmund, Germany this weekend, training club members how to drive their new EVO Electro Cordless winch.

The winch was delivered on its made to measure frame by lorry, then transferred to the gliding club’s own lorry ready for use on the airfield. A perfect fit!

Menden-Barge is a very interesting airfield, as depending on takeoff direction, the winch is either 60m lower or 60m higher than the launch point!

Training started Friday afternoon, followed by a full day Saturday. We launched until late into the evening both days.

More tomorrow!

03/04/2025

Introducing our latest model: The Skylaunch EVO Electro Cordless. Proven Skylaunch Mechanicals with Cordless Electric Drive.

Come and see us at Aero, stand A-105.

(Video by Bradley Soanes - thank you!)

17/03/2025

Camera microphone makes it sound windier than it was! K21 in 10-12kt wind with 7-8kt headwind component.