I have witnessed the most terrifying method of all, The reflex launch. This launch is similar to auto launch except that it works on the nature of a certain class of nylon rope. The tow vehicle parks in front and close to the glider. The tow rope is attached and laid out on the runway in a series of S turns. The vehicle then accelerates down the run and the rope begins to straighten out. By the time the rope is straight ,the vehicle is moving at take off speed. This is where it gets a bit hairy. The rope, having taken up slack, begins to stretch ,as the glider takes a few moments to catch up. As the aircraft gathers speed and launches, the rope shrinks back to its normal length thus adding extra speed to the climb. The situation is now critical, for if the vehicle slows down for any reason ,the rope will become slack and the glider will be in a dire situation of a slack rope at a low altitude in a dangerous elevated attitude. I witnessed this method on a course I did and declined the opportunity to try it out. Ps , the rope lasted for about 4 launches until it became too frayed from being dragged along a sealed runway. Cheer from Over the Pond👍🇦🇺🇳🇿
Great video. What about the shoulder launch? Requirements: 1. Hill. 2. Correct wind speed and direction. 3. A six person ground crew. 4. A lightweight glider (Ka6/8/18 type). Method. Move the glider to the slope. Lift the glider onto your shoulders (it should nearly be flying) with one at the tail. Now run down the hill. The glider will (should…) fly off. It’s expensive, like bungy launching, due to the number of beers required for the ground crew. And then there is the reverse auto-tow that is more like a winch launch. It is used when you have a short strip.
Interesting to see the Heli-drop - We’ve been very successfully launching RC gliders like that for years on flat field RC sites with only thermals to generate any lift (along with bungee launches). One suitably qualified person to fly a suitable size drone in an approved location - drone equiped with an emergency release - and one person to fly the gilder with a normal nose release servo. Very effective for that situation with no ridge lift as you can launch at any time and not just wait for capricious thermals.
In Sweden, an old pilot went almost blind and lost his licence, but he still wanted to fly, so he built an SG38 and had his grand daughter tow him up with a horse... We also tow with snowmobiles in the winter.
As a hang glider pilot, I was going to add foot launch, but someone beat me to it. We used to do hand towing sometimes. Couple of guys pulling on the end of the tow rope. Car towing (what you call Auto-tow). Winching. I flew and drove the winch, but it was very dangerous. Horse towing I saw in a video once. The glider pulled onto the air by a horse. Boat towing of course is how it got started and a major manufacturer used to do initial test flying that way. Truck towing though seemed promising. Flat bed truck drives along with the glider on the bed. When it reaches flying speed the pilot lifts the nose and takes off. There's a payout winch on the truck. The interesting twist is that the truck can drive up and down the strip and the glider turns 180 at each end. That way the glider can be towed far higher than the strip is long. You can't do it car towing because the bridal attachment will cause the glider to go out of control if the direction of flight and direction of tow are too different.
The place with gravity launch is Bezmiechowa in Poland. We do these launches nearly everyday in the morning to transport gliders downhill for winch launches. With headwind, I would say that it is simpler than winch launch. I've got a clip of bungee launch there on my channel.
I remember bungee launching from the Midland GC in the 1980s. You expect it to be more dramatic than it realy is. It's just like instant flight. Hard work for the groundcrew though!
I was at this helicopter launch, and the practice day for it. From memory it was Terry Delore in the glider and Bruce Drake in the chopper. In the practice (which it looks like this video was from, not the actual airshow) the glider was hanging for rather long time. Bruce was heard to enquire on the radio whether Terry was going to be long, because he was starting to lose altitude. Terry replied that he was having difficulty reaching the release. He eventually got it. I don't know whether he had his straps tighter for the airshow flight or put an extension on the release cable. It would have been interesting to see what happened if the chopper accelerated into forward flight. A snatch launch was in fact proposed for this show (the opening ceremony for the 1995 Worlds in Omarama), but Max ruled it out.
Wow a snatch launch would be interesting to see :) thanks for sharing Bruce, much appreciated! I knew Bruce was involved, but didn't know Terry was too.
I was driving through Kansas ln my pickup truck one time and came to this old training glider setting beside the highway in front of a farmhouse. The guy waved me down and asked if I would give him a tow. I told him I'd towed many gliders and would be happy to give him a snap. He said when he released, leave the rope beside the road. Last I saw of him he was circling in lift and climbing.
Auto tow down a runway normaly uses something heavier than a car, Bath & Wilts club in the 70's used a lorry tractor unit and later changed to a large "pickup" (ute). Back in the mid 60's I remember seeing an auto tow from the public recreation area on top of a 750ft hill using about 100 foot of rope and probably a mk2 Jaguar, just enough height to get to the slope of the hill :) When covering winch launches, don't forget Bruno Vassel and the 8,000 feet on the 11,000 feet drum winch launch !
Another variation is the winch with remote pulley. The winch is at the launch site, and the line goes out to a pulley a few hundred yards away, and comes back to the starting point. You can get maybe 1200 feet this way.
During WW II, they did "snatch launches" much like how banner tow pilots pick up banners. Big loop in the rope held up by two poles. Tow pilot comes in low with hook trailing behind and catches the loop, snatching the glider into the air.
They used a variant of it to retrieve PERSONNEL! :) ruclips.net/video/u4xlYpKrCnU/видео.html&ab_channel=AmericanHeroesChannel the first part of the video. The rest shows an improved version
I’ve done a bungee launch at the Mynd and loved it. It was so smooth and gentle. Also tried a car launch which was very much like a gentle winch launch. We used to have a rocket assisted launch as a launch method in our log books. Never tried it or seen it myself. Have you found such a thing during your investigations?
Thanks for the nice videos! We have a vintage gliding site in Sweden, Ålleberg, where we can still bungee launch gliders. It's a small mountain with slope soaring possibilities and it's the historical cradle of gliding in Sweden. A little trivia perhaps. :-)
Oh wow, we used to use the bungee method in the first Gulf War to pull mired vehicles out of the Saudi Arabian quicksand (Sabkahs)! We'd shackle together about three 50-foot (15.25m) nylon ropes and get a running start with the recovery vehicle, and the rope would stretch naturally, "springing" the mired vehicle out of the mud. The ropes could take about three of these exercises before their elasticity was kaput, but mires happened frequently enough that it became a favorite practice.
The helicopter seems risky if somehow the rope gets tangled in one of the rotors the helicopter would likely crash. I think auto, and winch tow seem to be the most economical especially for pattern and landing practice.
@@lil__boi3027 Unfortunately composite materials aren't very impact resistant, and that includes shrapnel from an explosion (which seems to be quite common with rockets).
I did a weight-shift microlight tow launch. Interesting thing was - you cannot pull the microlight around, because it has no tail. The rope is on the propeller hub, and on the CofG. RE
Aston Down used to have a variation of the auto launch where the cable went around a pulley in the ground and the large V8 powered pickup, pulling the cable, was coming down the field towards you....
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. I've actually done a slightly different version of an auto launch: the cable runs from the glider to the other end of the runway, around a big pulley mounted on a swivel then back towards the glider and is attached to the car. The car starts off, avoiding the line of the cable and it is very much like a winch launch. When the glider releases the car continues to the launch point, the cable is disconnected and the car then returns to the other end of the runway to perform the next launch with the cable the other way around. This was at Tarrent Rusden Airfield, Dorset, UK around 1975.
The snatch launch I surmise is the same technique as used by banner aircraft picking up the banner. In the dim distant past before reliable helicopters another recovery system was used, Skyhook. There were several variants, but the basic system was a cable attached to a balloon that was caught by an aircraft and the attached load was winch into the back of the aircraft, latterly a modified C-130 (the same type as used to recover film from satellites). This technique was used to recover special forces. The whole system could be delivered by parachute and the package retrieved with just the "payload" on the ground. From the payload point of view an essential element was the heavily padded flight suit and helmet. The system was used until the end of the Vietnam war, but was largely replaced by helicopter extraction. On an exchange tour is the US, I was "invited" to give it a try; not as bad as I expected, about the same jerk as a winch launch, but the acceleration continued for much longer. Now if you want rapid acceleration and deceleration, try a carrier shot and trap (i've done that too, off UK and US carries many decades ago). For now I shall stick with mundane winch launching and aerotow.
Last place with auto launch is Reinsdorf south of Berlin i know well.. they also use long rope tow up to 4500 ft in this place. Nice to see it here on this video..
In Oz some 30 years ago we used a 100m 150m Buggy cord & a vehicle. We did this on a blanik which is a heavy all metal 2 seat glider. We achieved around 1000 feet. This was done as a across australia gliding attempt Perth to wollongong. This was as safe as a winch launch & approved in Oz
@@PureGlide yes indeed - the car is driving towards the glider with the cable around a pulley - on release the car carries on to the launch point and disconnects - leaving the cable ready for the next launch while it drives back to the pulley side. I guess the cable needs to be longer but there are other benefits …
@@iancox1408 By using a powerful vehicle such as a truck, you can also have a pulley on the tow vehicle, so the rope goes from a fixed anchor in the ground, around the vehicle pully, then round a fixed pulley at or beyond the upwind end of the runway. That way the glider moves twice as far (and twice as fast) as the tow vehicle, shortening the length needed for the runway still further.
We used to auto-tow at Essex Gliding Club at North Weald, the former RAF station in the early 80s. Used old Chevy pick-up trucks with 350 cubic inch V engines running on LPG. There was a nice long runway , over 6000 feet, so plenty enough room to get a launch of up to about 1400 feet. Which we needed in order to do pre-solo spin training. I imagine it would be frowned-upon to do spin training in a K-13 from that sort of height these days, but we managed.
Back in the eighties I flew at RAE Farnborough in the UK and car launcing was the only method we used (Vauxhall Crestas IIRC). Did spinning too. In a K-13.
Vehicle launches are very common for hang gliders. Very safe and quick to reset. The car continues driving to the end of the field while the released rope falls, then turns around dragging the rope back to the next waiting glider. Car unhooks and picks up other end now lying in line with the takeoff direction. Very efficient no rewinding required.
My club dose auto tows twice a year. Group decided it was better to mount the attach point in the bed of a truck, over the rear axle to avoid lifting if the glider releases late.
Many years ago I visited a site in Africa that used an electric winch. Easy to operate and almost completely silent. The winch was manned when I visited, but I understand it had a remote unit so as to allow it to be operated from the launch point if necessary. Sounds like a good solution if you can run sufficiently heavy power cables to the site.
There used to be a club in the midlands that used an f250 and adouble length tow rope and a fixed pulley at tne bottom of the runway on a good launch you could get 1500plus feet but you had to grab a thermal pretty quick or land and go again
I fly gliders and I'm a retired US Army helicopter pilot. Ref the helicopter launch: The cargo hook is designed for more or less straight down loads, so the hover part of that method is semi-reasonable. The "towplane" portion of that, not so much. A rope break when your hook is under the helicopter fuselage (or getting the glider out of position, or having an engine failure on the helicopter) could easily result in the rope fouling the rotors. Ouch!
Mark Felton channel has a video outlining efforts to recover military gliders for re-use including snatch launch by C47 footage from WW2... including a parting tow rope recoiling into the glider...
Very interesting video. Tbh honest the rolling down the hill method also has no abort option. The dangling part of the helicopter launch also looked rather risky since the glider had a lot of motion long its vertical axis the wings could have tangled with the rope also wondering about the load on the attachment with the weight of the glider + the down-wash of the helicopter.
In Atlantic Canada air cadets, the auto tow and aero tow are common because the winch at least the last time I went was broken and had been for ages so the replaced it with a truck
7:53 My Tesla would be perfect for that. AWD, 300 kW, 0-100 km/h in 4,6 sec. Optional limited power 165 kW, optional top speed of your choice, huge back up camera screen. 😎😁
You could technically also say that launching from the top of a 747 was one, too. The Space Shuttle Enterprise never had engines and so- at a stretch- you could say it was a glider, although I don't think the glide ratio was particularly good........
Where have I seen videos of old bangers driven off a cliff? It was in the US or Canada, if memory serves me right. Now there's an idea for making glider launches more of a spectator sport....
How hard would it be to fit in a freight elevator? I'm thinking off the top of a building. Maybe use a teeter-totter ramp with the CG being just slightly back, and the business end hanging off the building. Have the back end weighed down while you load (or put back together), then to launch just release the weighs. Be an AWESOME feeling "Flipping the Lip" off of a 80 or more story building.
Ha unfortunately we need to get to 1000 feet above the ground at least. So you'd need one of the worlds top 100 buildings to do it. Wikipedia lists the 76th tallest building in the world as 1200 feet with 75 floors. Oh and our wingspans are 15m to 18m, a slightly awkward shape... but it would be fun!
As far as I've heard from a guy who was in the ground crew of the balloon, this was a one off stunt for an airshow in Russia and they had a backup rope for the first part of the flight that they pulled back onto the balloon when they reached a safe altitude
1:42 Welcome to my home club! Midland gliding Club is one of the only 2 places in the world to bungee launch! Along with Camphill, it only occurs in the UK! Great video by the way :)
As an American Pole I'd like to add a recommendation of how to blow 90 min of your life... The time you will never get back, but... enjoy so much watching this old French war comedy... Can't tell why now, (you will see), for the reason of not spoiling the Scène finale ('when the fat lady sings' as they say in show business) It is called: La Grande Vadrouille ...a must see for any self respecting glider pilot. Sincerely, Mirek
I always thought that duel launching gliders was a way to introduce added complexity to an already risky engagement in order to save a few pounds. If I was running a gliding club I wouldn't allow duel launching gliders. RE: Heli Launch, One word, "Turbulence"
@@PureGlide Like a which launch with a pully at one end. Car drives at the glider. when it gets to the other end, drops the cable, drives back. There's a ring on both ends. So efficient.
Just found your channel (liked and sub'd) Awesome stuff. Incidentally NASA used the auto tow with the lifting body aircraft. They used a Pontiac Catalina convertible with a race spec engine in it to tow the lifting body aircraft to 100mph.
Ok, the first two didn't occur to me as crazy :-D "Bungee"-launch is what they did at the German Wasserkuppe (and several other sites I guess) before winch-, aerotow- and autotow-launches were invented and the no-tow-gravity-launch is the one that Otto Lilienthal used :-D Otherwise, ok, these *are* crazy...
Please take a few minutes to watch the attached from utube. I know you will love it. Location is the Lancashire And Derbyshire gliding club at Camphill UK.It is blessed with west and south ridges nearly a thousand feet over the valley floor. Thanks for all your output. It’s informative and instructional. Please yEnter BUNGEE LAUNCHING A CAPSTAN. and sit back to enjoy
The balloon one can be made just as safe by having a non-quick-release rope as a backup. So before launch you release that one first, bring the rope up to the balloon harness and then the quick release. If the quick release goes before the backup rope, launch is aborted. Balloon lands, glider might get some damage but pilot survives. Hang gliders are also launched like that
Yeah... I never saw it personally, but I remember seeing ads in the yellow pages (1990's) in Albequerque for hot air balloon rides that said they'd also take hang gliders to altitude. After having been in a hot air balloon I have a hard time imagining anything involving them being safe.. I was terrified the whole time.... Much more so than when jumping out of an airplane with a parachute.
Hey if we ever hit a zombie petrol apocalypse you still got HG! Last week I took off with hand towing in strong wind, released and soared in a small ridge :)
The helicopter takeoff should be less turbulent than tow plane and if both can't separate the towline, I guess the attached landing would be a lot easier than tow plane (if heli is powerful enough to carry the glider than would be an awkward landing looking under the heli hanging down under it :)
3:46 Great to see that finally SOMEONE thinks of gliding in the eventual Zombie Apocalypse! But in terms of refined oil, maybe we can get winch launching driven by electric motors / batteries / solar panels (not wind turbines, as they would make quite an obstacle on the takeoff path).
Interesting, you forgot the reverse pull auto tow. The cable, with rings on doth ends, goes round a pulley at the opposite end of the runway, the tow car drives towards the glider, the glider goes up they cross in the middle. When the glider releases the car the car goes to the launch point and leaves the cable there for the next launch, with two cars, the launch rate is very high. I have seen this used on several sights in the UK
cool I enjoy your videos... question: why did it the glider uses the wing brakes when towed with the helicopter? is the stall speed slower when they're engaged? I thought it is faster due to the fact that these brakes disturb the airflow as in German they are called "störklappen" and why they released it hanging? not in movement?
Good question, I think they did it simply to help lose energy. Otherwise the glider would simply fly under and past the helicopter which wouldn’t be good.
@@PureGlide as they towed it in the beginning I thought as well the downwash might disturb the flight of the glider. but it seems to work well. if you release when the helicopter turns left and you turn right or vv. it should work.
Deploying the spoilers also increases the drag of the glider. In some cases it's impossible for the towplane to climb if the boards come open on a glider being towed.
Good question, they both have their dangers. I’d say if it goes wrong on winch it can happen a lot faster. On aerotow you can have an aerotow upset, where the glider kites up behind the tow plane, and lifts the tail of the tow plane forcing it to dive, and if that happens near the ground there’s no chance of recovery. That might make a good video topic, cheers!
I think they didn't upgrade anything. Glider hooks are designed to withstand more than weight of the glider. But this kind of operation is not expected to use as daily routine by manufacturer. Some glider designers assume nominal force 1.3 of max T/O weight and the shear 1.2 of nominal.
Glider tow ropes are required to have strength not less than 80% of the glider weight and not more than 200% of the glider weight. As the rope should break before the attachments, obviously the attachments (on both ends) must be able to cope with more than 200% of the glider weight.
Bungee isn't 'crazy' - in fact it was the norm in the 20's and 30's.....and auto launch and reverse pulley auto launch is fairly normal - belonged to several clubs which used this method in the UK..... far more crazy methods out there - grease board launch, horse launch, JATO pod launch........
Crazy Start method #6 isn't that crazy at all: RUN! Ever heard about the "Archaeopteryx" glider? Swiss engineers invented a rigid wing glider that can be started by the legs of the pilot. :o It's possible to start and land that thing like a delta wing glider. But with its enclosed cockpit and a glide ratio of 28, (and a prize around 80k) that thing is not a hang glider. Imo hat is a proper sailplane.
I disagree that it is unsafe - in fact I think its safer than winch or autotow. And it could climb to a very high altitude, so after an early morning launch to 10000 feet in stable air, the glider could potter around at min. sink speed until the thermals start popping.
@@CLdriver1960 Realistically, what is the probability of the release mechanism failing under a 1G static load? They are designed to take far greater loads during a winch launch, and how many cases of release mechanism failure do you hear of in any other type of glider launch? I say it is less than the probability of an elevator attachment failing, or the release mechanism of helicopter lifting equipment, or thousands of other mechanical fittings that would result in death if they were to fail. The probability is surely far less than the possibility of the brakes failing in your car, and you take that risk almost every day.
@@davemould4638 I suppose I didn’t clearly make my point. The risk of the release failure may not be a high, as you put it, but the release/ cable failure will be as high as any cable break will. The consequence of a failure during an aero/winch/auto launch is either low, or insignificant. A low altitude failure in a balloon launch is catastrophic.
I have witnessed the most terrifying method of all, The reflex launch. This launch is similar to auto launch except that it works on the nature of a certain class of nylon rope. The tow vehicle parks in front and close to the glider. The tow rope is attached and laid out on the runway in a series of S turns. The vehicle then accelerates down the run and the rope begins to straighten out. By the time the rope is straight ,the vehicle is moving at take off speed. This is where it gets a bit hairy. The rope, having taken up slack, begins to stretch ,as the glider takes a few moments to catch up.
As the aircraft gathers speed and launches, the rope shrinks back to its normal length thus adding extra speed to the climb. The situation is now critical, for if the vehicle slows down for any reason ,the rope will become slack and the glider will be in a dire situation of a slack rope at a low altitude in a dangerous elevated attitude. I witnessed this method on a course I did and declined the opportunity to try it out.
Ps , the rope lasted for about 4 launches until it became too frayed from being dragged along a sealed runway.
Cheer from Over the Pond👍🇦🇺🇳🇿
Holy cow that doesn't sound sensible at all :) Thanks for sharing!
That, if I understand correctly what I have just read, would be an ideal method for decapitating traitors. Not for me.
Great video.
What about the shoulder launch? Requirements: 1. Hill. 2. Correct wind speed and direction. 3. A six person ground crew. 4. A lightweight glider (Ka6/8/18 type). Method. Move the glider to the slope. Lift the glider onto your shoulders (it should nearly be flying) with one at the tail. Now run down the hill. The glider will (should…) fly off. It’s expensive, like bungy launching, due to the number of beers required for the ground crew. And then there is the reverse auto-tow that is more like a winch launch. It is used when you have a short strip.
Thanks Trevor :)
I remember being told by an instructor ,that you got a much better auto launch when the owner of the car wasn’t driving it 😉
A better launch? Haha yeah I bet!
Interesting to see the Heli-drop - We’ve been very successfully launching RC gliders like that for years on flat field RC sites with only thermals to generate any lift (along with bungee launches). One suitably qualified person to fly a suitable size drone in an approved location - drone equiped with an emergency release - and one person to fly the gilder with a normal nose release servo. Very effective for that situation with no ridge lift as you can launch at any time and not just wait for capricious thermals.
In Sweden, an old pilot went almost blind and lost his licence, but he still wanted to fly, so he built an SG38 and had his grand daughter tow him up with a horse...
We also tow with snowmobiles in the winter.
Haha that’s awesome
As a hang glider pilot, I was going to add foot launch, but someone beat me to it.
We used to do hand towing sometimes. Couple of guys pulling on the end of the tow rope. Car towing (what you call Auto-tow). Winching. I flew and drove the winch, but it was very dangerous. Horse towing I saw in a video once. The glider pulled onto the air by a horse. Boat towing of course is how it got started and a major manufacturer used to do initial test flying that way.
Truck towing though seemed promising. Flat bed truck drives along with the glider on the bed. When it reaches flying speed the pilot lifts the nose and takes off. There's a payout winch on the truck. The interesting twist is that the truck can drive up and down the strip and the glider turns 180 at each end. That way the glider can be towed far higher than the strip is long. You can't do it car towing because the bridal attachment will cause the glider to go out of control if the direction of flight and direction of tow are too different.
Now turning around mid tow sounds crazy! Thanks for sharing
I’m still loving the horse tow launch!
Yeah that was pretty epic!
Wait, how does that work?
The place with gravity launch is Bezmiechowa in Poland. We do these launches nearly everyday in the morning to transport gliders downhill for winch launches. With headwind, I would say that it is simpler than winch launch. I've got a clip of bungee launch there on my channel.
Awesome thank you for sharing. It looks like fun! So do you winch up the hill?!
@@PureGlide Yes, we land at the bottom of the hill and launch uphill. Landing at the top is unsafe so this is the fastest way.
I remember bungee launching from the Midland GC in the 1980s. You expect it to be more dramatic than it realy is. It's just like instant flight. Hard work for the groundcrew though!
Very interesting! Yeah does look like hard work for the ground crew.
foot launch for gliders like the archaeopteryx or ulf-1
Yeah I feel they could have their own video!
@@PureGlide next week I'll publish footage of my 2nd bungee launch. (Still editing)
YABBA DABBA DOO!!!!
I was at this helicopter launch, and the practice day for it. From memory it was Terry Delore in the glider and Bruce Drake in the chopper. In the practice (which it looks like this video was from, not the actual airshow) the glider was hanging for rather long time. Bruce was heard to enquire on the radio whether Terry was going to be long, because he was starting to lose altitude. Terry replied that he was having difficulty reaching the release. He eventually got it. I don't know whether he had his straps tighter for the airshow flight or put an extension on the release cable. It would have been interesting to see what happened if the chopper accelerated into forward flight.
A snatch launch was in fact proposed for this show (the opening ceremony for the 1995 Worlds in Omarama), but Max ruled it out.
Wow a snatch launch would be interesting to see :) thanks for sharing Bruce, much appreciated! I knew Bruce was involved, but didn't know Terry was too.
The glider pilot was Bruce Drake, the helicopter pilot was Alan Bond of Mt Hutt Helicopters
@@glidingkiwi490 thanks for the correction John
@@BruceHoult Glidingkiwi.com is not run by John Roake
@@glidingkiwi490 well that's a confusing name. What the heck is a glidingkiwi.com, based in Switzerland?
I was driving through Kansas ln my pickup truck one time and came to this old training glider setting beside the highway in front of a farmhouse. The guy waved me down and asked if I would give him a tow. I told him I'd towed many gliders and would be happy to give him a snap. He said when he released, leave the rope beside the road. Last I saw of him he was circling in lift and climbing.
Awesome!
The most dangerous way of doing anything always begins with " these guys from Russia"....
Haha 😂
There are 3 ways to do something. The right way , the wrong way and the russian way
Except ejection seats at least.
Here, hold my beer!
Prophetic brilliance. I've never been to Russia but I know that feeling!
I stopped flying in the 80's not because I wanted to. I love your shows and the manner that you present them. Thank You. South Africa
Back in the 90s I was a passanger for an auto lauch at RAAF Laverton as part of the Air Cadets
Auto tow down a runway normaly uses something heavier than a car, Bath & Wilts club in the 70's used a lorry tractor unit and later changed to a large "pickup" (ute).
Back in the mid 60's I remember seeing an auto tow from the public recreation area on top of a 750ft hill using about 100 foot of rope and probably a mk2 Jaguar, just enough height to get to the slope of the hill :)
When covering winch launches, don't forget Bruno Vassel and the 8,000 feet on the 11,000 feet drum winch launch !
I definitely want to try getting slingshot of a mountain
Yeah same!
Slangshat* lol
@@Dee-Eddy slangshat sounds like someone is fling shit at something.
@@zyrota4295 lol, yes it does.
Another variation is the winch with remote pulley. The winch is at the launch site, and the line goes out to a pulley a few hundred yards away, and comes back to the starting point. You can get maybe 1200 feet this way.
During WW II, they did "snatch launches" much like how banner tow pilots pick up banners. Big loop in the rope held up by two poles. Tow pilot comes in low with hook trailing behind and catches the loop, snatching the glider into the air.
Yeah I saw some footage of it, it looked scary!
They used a variant of it to retrieve PERSONNEL! :)
ruclips.net/video/u4xlYpKrCnU/видео.html&ab_channel=AmericanHeroesChannel
the first part of the video. The rest shows an improved version
I’ve done a bungee launch at the Mynd and loved it. It was so smooth and gentle. Also tried a car launch which was very much like a gentle winch launch. We used to have a rocket assisted launch as a launch method in our log books. Never tried it or seen it myself. Have you found such a thing during your investigations?
Interesting! No haven’t seen or heard of rocket launches in New Zealand…
This looks like such a fun hobby!
It is!
Thanks for the nice videos! We have a vintage gliding site in Sweden, Ålleberg, where we can still bungee launch gliders. It's a small mountain with slope soaring possibilities and it's the historical cradle of gliding in Sweden. A little trivia perhaps. :-)
Sounds great!
Oh wow, we used to use the bungee method in the first Gulf War to pull mired vehicles out of the Saudi Arabian quicksand (Sabkahs)! We'd shackle together about three 50-foot (15.25m) nylon ropes and get a running start with the recovery vehicle, and the rope would stretch naturally, "springing" the mired vehicle out of the mud. The ropes could take about three of these exercises before their elasticity was kaput, but mires happened frequently enough that it became a favorite practice.
Aero towed gliders with a PA18-150 in the 1960s great fun flying
Nice 👌
@@PureGlide it was from Masterton airfield New Zealand
The helicopter seems risky if somehow the rope gets tangled in one of the rotors the helicopter would likely crash. I think auto, and winch tow seem to be the most economical especially for pattern and landing practice.
Yeah absolutely, I guess helicopter pilots deal with ropes and loads all the time so it’s relatively normal for them!
Fuck all of them, how about rocket boosting your glider into flight speed
@@lil__boi3027 Unfortunately composite materials aren't very impact resistant, and that includes shrapnel from an explosion (which seems to be quite common with rockets).
@@PureGlide True, though most loads aren't able to easily gain altitude in order to drag the rope up :)
Bungee Launching ist done on multiple Airfields in Germany, we call it “Gummiseilstart”
Excellent, it’s a good idea! Nice and affordable
I did a weight-shift microlight tow launch.
Interesting thing was - you cannot pull the microlight around, because it has no tail.
The rope is on the propeller hub, and on the CofG.
RE
In the movie "La Grande Vadrouille", a pair of gliders were towed by car. The car went down a cliff and the gliders ended up in the air.
They forgot to use wing runners! So in conclusion, not recommended... ruclips.net/video/wwsa4PVYMJY/видео.html
We used a Chevy V8 Pick-Up at Lasham before the winch was installed
Awesome
Aston Down used to have a variation of the auto launch where the cable went around a pulley in the ground and the large V8 powered pickup, pulling the cable, was coming down the field towards you....
Yeah that's the traditional auto launch I believe. Cheers!
@@PureGlide Went solo at ADOWN Normally only got to 800 feet though
Bungee and gravity were normal in the very early days of glider flying on Wasserkuppe and other German sites.
1:21 glider type: puchacz (type of owl - that's why there is owl painted)
Yeah we have 2 of them in our club
Interesting video, thanks for sharing.
I've actually done a slightly different version of an auto launch: the cable runs from the glider to the other end of the runway, around a big pulley mounted on a swivel then back towards the glider and is attached to the car. The car starts off, avoiding the line of the cable and it is very much like a winch launch. When the glider releases the car continues to the launch point, the cable is disconnected and the car then returns to the other end of the runway to perform the next launch with the cable the other way around. This was at Tarrent Rusden Airfield, Dorset, UK around 1975.
Yeah that’s the normal auto launch method I think, cheers!
Why do you need the pulley if it works without it?
@@niconico3907 It allows the car to travel in the opposite direction to the glider, significantly reducing the length of runway needed.
The snatch launch I surmise is the same technique as used by banner aircraft picking up the banner.
In the dim distant past before reliable helicopters another recovery system was used, Skyhook. There were several variants, but the basic system was a cable attached to a balloon that was caught by an aircraft and the attached load was winch into the back of the aircraft, latterly a modified C-130 (the same type as used to recover film from satellites).
This technique was used to recover special forces.
The whole system could be delivered by parachute and the package retrieved with just the "payload" on the ground. From the payload point of view an essential element was the heavily padded flight suit and helmet.
The system was used until the end of the Vietnam war, but was largely replaced by helicopter extraction.
On an exchange tour is the US, I was "invited" to give it a try; not as bad as I expected, about the same jerk as a winch launch, but the acceleration continued for much longer.
Now if you want rapid acceleration and deceleration, try a carrier shot and trap (i've done that too, off UK and US carries many decades ago).
For now I shall stick with mundane winch launching and aerotow.
Thanks for sharing! Certainly would be fun to try :)
They often used the snatch launch with DC-3s to recover troop gliders during WW-II.
Last place with auto launch is Reinsdorf south of Berlin i know well.. they also use long rope tow up to 4500 ft in this place.
Nice to see it here on this video..
Thanks Guenni!
Always doing aerobatics there when launching on long rope..
Bungee launches is made in Ålleberg, Sweden, mostly as a vintage start method for vintage gliders.
In Oz some 30 years ago we used a 100m 150m Buggy cord & a vehicle. We did this on a blanik which is a heavy all metal 2 seat glider. We achieved around 1000 feet. This was done as a across australia gliding attempt Perth to wollongong. This was as safe as a winch launch & approved in Oz
Awesome, and you guys have the runways for it too!
"...it's almost like normal."
Let's see him box the wake.
😂
Those crazy men in their flying machines!
Reverse autotow is also fun - very time efficient as well. I launched like that in Cornwall in a T21 many years ago …
By reverse do you mean with pulleys?
@@PureGlide yes indeed - the car is driving towards the glider with the cable around a pulley - on release the car carries on to the launch point and disconnects - leaving the cable ready for the next launch while it drives back to the pulley side. I guess the cable needs to be longer but there are other benefits …
@@drmartinyoung3761 Davidstowe using a 4.2 jaguar, good days late 70s early 80s 👍
@@iancox1408 By using a powerful vehicle such as a truck, you can also have a pulley on the tow vehicle, so the rope goes from a fixed anchor in the ground, around the vehicle pully, then round a fixed pulley at or beyond the upwind end of the runway. That way the glider moves twice as far (and twice as fast) as the tow vehicle, shortening the length needed for the runway still further.
Great stuff Tim, love all your videos. Reminds me of my days as a glider pilot here in the UK.
That's awesome, cheers!
We used to auto-tow at Essex Gliding Club at North Weald, the former RAF station in the early 80s. Used old Chevy pick-up trucks with 350 cubic inch V engines running on LPG. There was a nice long runway , over 6000 feet, so plenty enough room to get a launch of up to about 1400 feet. Which we needed in order to do pre-solo spin training. I imagine it would be frowned-upon to do spin training in a K-13 from that sort of height these days, but we managed.
Holy cow spinning from 1400'?! Yeah not recommended, it's all fine if it works perfectly... Thanks for sharing!
Back in the eighties I flew at RAE Farnborough in the UK and car launcing was the only method we used (Vauxhall Crestas IIRC). Did spinning too. In a K-13.
Two loops off a 1400' winch launch with Derek Goddard at Lasham in the early '60s. Large pucker factor.
I have only done aero tow. Yes that bungee looked interesting. Especially if you can launch right into ridge lift.
Yeah it would be fun eh!
Vehicle launches are very common for hang gliders. Very safe and quick to reset. The car continues driving to the end of the field while the released rope falls, then turns around dragging the rope back to the next waiting glider. Car unhooks and picks up other end now lying in line with the takeoff direction. Very efficient no rewinding required.
My club dose auto tows twice a year. Group decided it was better to mount the attach point in the bed of a truck, over the rear axle to avoid lifting if the glider releases late.
Interesting, thanks for commenting. Do you use a pulley system so the car comes back towards the glider? or tow the same direction?
We used auto car launch on a dry lake in NV. It's not bonkers. My dad could get 1400 ft on a 2000ft wire. I could barely get 900l
Back in the 80s we used to see Auto Towing of hang gliders at our local airfield. The weak link they used was a paracord loop at the car end.
Awesome, would be fun
Same plece (Jeżor Sudecki, near EPJG airport in Poland) was used also for bungee lunch with some vintage gliders Grunau Baby if i remember correctly.
Yeah great site for bungee too, it would just speed things up a bit
Many years ago I visited a site in Africa that used an electric winch. Easy to operate and almost completely silent. The winch was manned when I visited, but I understand it had a remote unit so as to allow it to be operated from the launch point if necessary. Sounds like a good solution if you can run sufficiently heavy power cables to the site.
Yeah that would be awesome!
There used to be a club in the midlands that used an f250 and adouble length tow rope and a fixed pulley at tne bottom of the runway on a good launch you could get 1500plus feet but you had to grab a thermal pretty quick or land and go again
I fly gliders and I'm a retired US Army helicopter pilot. Ref the helicopter launch: The cargo hook is designed for more or less straight down loads, so the hover part of that method is semi-reasonable. The "towplane" portion of that, not so much. A rope break when your hook is under the helicopter fuselage (or getting the glider out of position, or having an engine failure on the helicopter) could easily result in the rope fouling the rotors. Ouch!
I need to try gravity launch when i go back home. Also as far as I know the rainbow retro shirt is very nice for ground work as far as i know
Haha good to hear about the shirt!!
@@PureGlide Yes! I'm very happy with it. Thank you again!
The Glider snatch pick-up of World War II era was also pretty CRAZY! 🤪
Yeah we should do that with a modern glider / tow plane!
@@PureGlide I will not be volunteering to be either of the two pilots involved! I'm not 🤪 enough.
Mark Felton channel has a video outlining efforts to recover military gliders for re-use including snatch launch by C47 footage from WW2... including a parting tow rope recoiling into the glider...
Well done video chief!
Thanks :)
Very interesting video.
Tbh honest the rolling down the hill method also has no abort option. The dangling part of the helicopter launch also looked rather risky since the glider had a lot of motion long its vertical axis the wings could have tangled with the rope also wondering about the load on the attachment with the weight of the glider + the down-wash of the helicopter.
Yeah good points, cheers!
In Atlantic Canada air cadets, the auto tow and aero tow are common because the winch at least the last time I went was broken and had been for ages so the replaced it with a truck
7:53 My Tesla would be perfect for that. AWD, 300 kW, 0-100 km/h in 4,6 sec. Optional limited power 165 kW, optional top speed of your choice, huge back up camera screen. 😎😁
That would be awesome!
You could technically also say that launching from the top of a 747 was one, too. The Space Shuttle Enterprise never had engines and so- at a stretch- you could say it was a glider, although I don't think the glide ratio was particularly good........
Haha yes the shuttle is regarded as one of the ultimate gliders, thanks NASA for sorting out the logistics
Don’t forget launch by C-17 like in the new James Bond movie😂
Haha awesome I’ll be sure to cover it at some stage!
Airwolf also pulled off a C130 launch... Happily, not a glider! 😂
Where have I seen videos of old bangers driven off a cliff? It was in the US or Canada, if memory serves me right. Now there's an idea for making glider launches more of a spectator sport....
In the UK most likely. Or Poland!
How hard would it be to fit in a freight elevator? I'm thinking off the top of a building. Maybe use a teeter-totter ramp with the CG being just slightly back, and the business end hanging off the building. Have the back end weighed down while you load (or put back together), then to launch just release the weighs.
Be an AWESOME feeling "Flipping the Lip" off of a 80 or more story building.
Ha unfortunately we need to get to 1000 feet above the ground at least. So you'd need one of the worlds top 100 buildings to do it. Wikipedia lists the 76th tallest building in the world as 1200 feet with 75 floors. Oh and our wingspans are 15m to 18m, a slightly awkward shape... but it would be fun!
Same thing I thought as soon as I saw the balloon: what if you have a premature release low level?
Crazy.
Yip! Too crazy for me :) They did have quite an elaborate harness, but still
As far as I've heard from a guy who was in the ground crew of the balloon, this was a one off stunt for an airshow in Russia and they had a backup rope for the first part of the flight that they pulled back onto the balloon when they reached a safe altitude
Great video as Always!
Thanks!
1:42 Welcome to my home club! Midland gliding Club is one of the only 2 places in the world to bungee launch! Along with Camphill, it only occurs in the UK! Great video by the way :)
Awesome, I hope to visit one day!
Helicopter tow is fucking crazy dangerous, the downwash from the rotors is pretty similar to extreme winds shear.
Yip agreed!
As an American Pole I'd like to add a recommendation of how to blow 90 min of your life... The time you will never get back, but... enjoy so much watching this old French war comedy... Can't tell why now, (you will see), for the reason of not spoiling the Scène finale ('when the fat lady sings' as they say in show business)
It is called:
La Grande Vadrouille
...a must see for any self respecting glider pilot.
Sincerely,
Mirek
Wow those are pretty cool. Nice video, thanks for the upload
Cheers!
What if the cable doesn't get detached from the glider side due to mechanical issue, and you're using a tow launcher?
Whichever system you’re using it should be possible to detach from both ends, but it’s very rare even one end would fail
I always thought that duel launching gliders was a way to introduce added complexity to an already risky engagement in order to save a few pounds. If I was running a gliding club I wouldn't allow duel launching gliders. RE: Heli Launch, One word, "Turbulence"
#6 Piggyback launch.
#7 DLG launch (but you need a giant for that). DLG = Discus Launch Glider.
Lol
The ballon deal...what happens to the ballon when all that ballast is release. I has to climb like a sob until it cools down enough to equalize.
I was wondering that too! Maybe it's not that big a deal, and they just let some heat out... no idea!
Reverse autolaunch is another option I've done. Then one friend had a book with different types listed. One was rocket.
How do you do that? two pulleys at the end? or what? We really should do more rocket launches...
@@PureGlide
well the space shuttle was technicly a glider. Not exactly a sailplane, but due to the powerful launch it could glide quite a distance.
@@PureGlide Like a which launch with a pully at one end. Car drives at the glider. when it gets to the other end, drops the cable, drives back. There's a ring on both ends. So efficient.
Cool makes sense
@@PureGlide ruclips.net/video/23Gw6TyzMBo/видео.html&ab_channel=ChuckOwl
You might be interested in this.
Just found your channel (liked and sub'd) Awesome stuff.
Incidentally NASA used the auto tow with the lifting body aircraft. They used a Pontiac Catalina convertible with a race spec engine in it to tow the lifting body aircraft to 100mph.
Interesting, cheers!
Ok, the first two didn't occur to me as crazy :-D "Bungee"-launch is what they did at the German Wasserkuppe (and several other sites I guess) before winch-, aerotow- and autotow-launches were invented and the no-tow-gravity-launch is the one that Otto Lilienthal used :-D Otherwise, ok, these *are* crazy...
Yeah it's all relative :) I wouldn't put it past RUclipsr's exaggerating slightly with their headings...
Please take a few minutes to watch the attached from utube. I know you will love it. Location is the Lancashire
And Derbyshire gliding club at Camphill UK.It is blessed with west and south ridges nearly a thousand feet over the valley floor.
Thanks for all your output. It’s informative and instructional. Please yEnter BUNGEE LAUNCHING A CAPSTAN. and sit back to enjoy
Thanks Allan, here's the video for anyone ruclips.net/video/dyxs51ddWSY/видео.html
The balloon one can be made just as safe by having a non-quick-release rope as a backup. So before launch you release that one first, bring the rope up to the balloon harness and then the quick release. If the quick release goes before the backup rope, launch is aborted. Balloon lands, glider might get some damage but pilot survives.
Hang gliders are also launched like that
Interesting! Thanks for sharing
Yeah... I never saw it personally, but I remember seeing ads in the yellow pages (1990's) in Albequerque for hot air balloon rides that said they'd also take hang gliders to altitude. After having been in a hot air balloon I have a hard time imagining anything involving them being safe.. I was terrified the whole time.... Much more so than when jumping out of an airplane with a parachute.
Hey if we ever hit a zombie petrol apocalypse you still got HG! Last week I took off with hand towing in strong wind, released and soared in a small ridge :)
True! That'll be my backup plan after normal gliding :)
i cant imagine that glider isnt getting blasted from wake turbulence from that chopper!
The helicopter takeoff should be less turbulent than tow plane and if both can't separate the towline, I guess the attached landing would be a lot easier than tow plane (if heli is powerful enough to carry the glider than would be an awkward landing looking under the heli hanging down under it :)
Haha true! And yes they've be doing well to not release at either end...
You just talked me into a motor glider LMAO
😂
@@PureGlide Can't wait for electric motor gliders to be perfected thanks for taking the time...
3:46 Great to see that finally SOMEONE thinks of gliding in the eventual Zombie Apocalypse! But in terms of refined oil, maybe we can get winch launching driven by electric motors / batteries / solar panels (not wind turbines, as they would make quite an obstacle on the takeoff path).
the helicopter or the balloon launch must be hard to release the cable with all the tension from the weight of the glider pulling on the hook
Yeah I think it was from what I heard
Interesting, you forgot the reverse pull auto tow. The cable, with rings on doth ends, goes round a pulley at the opposite end of the runway, the tow car drives towards the glider, the glider goes up they cross in the middle. When the glider releases the car the car goes to the launch point and leaves the cable there for the next launch, with two cars, the launch rate is very high. I have seen this used on several sights in the UK
Yeah I think that's how you're meant to do an auto tow! I've never done one though, and didn't have any footage of it :)
The cable must have been damn strong to hold a glider underneath a helicopter.
Yeah pretty much!
great video, well presented.
Thanks and thanks for use of the video clip!
Oh God that rope next to the tail rotor is just so scary
Yip!
cool I enjoy your videos...
question: why did it the glider uses the wing brakes when towed with the helicopter? is the stall speed slower when they're engaged? I thought it is faster due to the fact that these brakes disturb the airflow as in German they are called "störklappen"
and why they released it hanging? not in movement?
Good question, I think they did it simply to help lose energy. Otherwise the glider would simply fly under and past the helicopter which wouldn’t be good.
@@PureGlide as they towed it in the beginning I thought as well the downwash might disturb the flight of the glider. but it seems to work well. if you release when the helicopter turns left and you turn right or vv. it should work.
Deploying the spoilers also increases the drag of the glider. In some cases it's impossible for the towplane to climb if the boards come open on a glider being towed.
@@JimForeman for sure, I just meant for the helicopter tow release...
The small Russia glider is the Russian version of the Me7.
A nice lightweight glider.
Empty weight of 120 kg.
RE
Bungee launch common at Harris Hill in the 1920s
Awesome, yeah you can’t get much cheaper and easier, although it would need a bit of a group of helpers
Do you consider aerotow or winchlaunch to be more dangerous?
Good question, they both have their dangers. I’d say if it goes wrong on winch it can happen a lot faster. On aerotow you can have an aerotow upset, where the glider kites up behind the tow plane, and lifts the tail of the tow plane forcing it to dive, and if that happens near the ground there’s no chance of recovery. That might make a good video topic, cheers!
Do you know whether the heli launch had an upgraded belly hook ? Can’t imagine most glider tow hooks are rated for the full glider weight!
I think they didn't upgrade anything. Glider hooks are designed to withstand more than weight of the glider. But this kind of operation is not expected to use as daily routine by manufacturer. Some glider designers assume nominal force 1.3 of max T/O weight and the shear 1.2 of nominal.
Yeah this was a one off stunt, so I doubt they changed the tow hook for it!
Glider tow ropes are required to have strength not less than 80% of the glider weight and not more than 200% of the glider weight. As the rope should break before the attachments, obviously the attachments (on both ends) must be able to cope with more than 200% of the glider weight.
if helicopter can tow glider, I think the modern 10 propeller drone can also do this?
there at least 2 places for gravity launch in Poland
Yeah would be fun to try one day
Bungee isn't 'crazy' - in fact it was the norm in the 20's and 30's.....and auto launch and reverse pulley auto launch is fairly normal - belonged to several clubs which used this method in the UK..... far more crazy methods out there - grease board launch, horse launch, JATO pod launch........
Yeah it’s not as crazy as the balloon launch, that’s for sure!
That was nuts! Balloon launch? No thanks!
Agreed!!
Crazy Start method #6 isn't that crazy at all: RUN!
Ever heard about the "Archaeopteryx" glider? Swiss engineers invented a rigid wing glider that can be started by the legs of the pilot. :o
It's possible to start and land that thing like a delta wing glider. But with its enclosed cockpit and a glide ratio of 28, (and a prize around 80k) that thing is not a hang glider. Imo hat is a proper sailplane.
Yeah I don’t know much about it, but it’s very interesting! Almost a hang glider more than a glider
That balloon launch got my attention too. Besides the safety issue, who would want to launch a glider during stable, low wind conditions?
True!
I disagree that it is unsafe - in fact I think its safer than winch or autotow. And it could climb to a very high altitude, so after an early morning launch to 10000 feet in stable air, the glider could potter around at min. sink speed until the thermals start popping.
@@davemould4638 Here’s my ‘unsafe’ scenario: if the cable/release mechanism should fail below 300’ there is no possibility of recovery.
@@CLdriver1960 Realistically, what is the probability of the release mechanism failing under a 1G static load? They are designed to take far greater loads during a winch launch, and how many cases of release mechanism failure do you hear of in any other type of glider launch? I say it is less than the probability of an elevator attachment failing, or the release mechanism of helicopter lifting equipment, or thousands of other mechanical fittings that would result in death if they were to fail. The probability is surely far less than the possibility of the brakes failing in your car, and you take that risk almost every day.
@@davemould4638 I suppose I didn’t clearly make my point. The risk of the release failure may not be a high, as you put it, but the release/ cable failure will be as high as any cable break will. The consequence of a failure during an aero/winch/auto launch is either low, or insignificant. A low altitude failure in a balloon launch is catastrophic.
So there is no video of horse tow?
Wait till i get a glider and ahorse and a runway
lol
Great videos 👍
Thanks 👍