Hi Patrick, I was interested in featuring a small clip of the gravity launch video on my RU-vid channel PureGlide, as part of a video on different launch methods. It would be a short clip and I'd link to your original video in the description. Any chance you can flick me an email if that's OK or not? pureglide@pear.co.nz Thanks in advance!
Translation of what they guy on the radio said: Weather is fine with a moderate headwind of 8 knots I shall now perform the preflight ritual of sacrificing a demon by strangling it with its own entrails **
guy on radio: JDFAISOFHIWQFJWQUFEQWHURTOHQEOFGUIHQWEOITEQ guy on plane: *nods, understanding everything to the letter* Edit: DUDE I didn’t even noticed the replies and the likes. First time I get so many lul
Could have been possible with ridge/hill lift or a thermal. I've never seen a sailplane gravity launch before, though I've seen a down hill bunjee launch.
THIS JUST BLEW MY MIND. been flying HG and PG for 26 years, thermalled together with sailplanes countless times... but never imagined they could launch like this. Just push em off a hill... yeah why not? (i see some reasons why but hey this was epic)
I too found this method very unique never having seen it before. Intuitively so simple. Hang gliders like me do it but use our feet just to keep moving over the ground.Newbies use wheels but mainly (only) for landing.
@Chris_1024_ Looked like a little bit of a ski jump at the end. If it wasn't pitched up then even a straight level edge with a drop off of the hill side would do it at that speed.
I did a week's gliding course at Long Mynd a LONG time ago. They have the usual winch launch but also occasionally use a bungee - literally an elastic rope with a few folk at each end and someone holding the tail back. Then they let go ... Sadly, although some on our course got a go at it, the conditions changed before it was my turn. Not sure if they still do it now.
A winch start is not that expensive either. And a lot more spectacular, once you learned how to do that. Ever felt 200 hp on a 400 pound plane?! Heeeeepah!
I like the efficiency of take offs and landings from the same area like PGs and HGs do at Torrey Pines Glider port. Dragging that plane back up the hill must be a big pain in the ice.
wow that is glider heaven. I can still feel the intimidation of those first flights when you aren't too sure how far out of the pattern you want to venture to find some lift =)
Must be a good place to practise take offs & landings - you could do many in one day. And such a lovely landscape ... I could happily live the rest of my days there, with my small woodworking shop tucked under some big, old trees ... with a cat or two, perhaps.
I like my ultralight better if I don't wanna hear the engine all I gotta do is turn it off and glide back down, and hell it's only a little harder than riding a bike.
We call them Gliders in the U.K. I did my very first Solo Flight in a Kirby Cadet MkIII. It’s a very old open cockpit Glider that I made my first Solo flight in when I was just 16 years old back in 1984. Also, 16 is the minimum age to Solo in a Glider, and 17 is the minimum age to be able to fly Solo and hold Private Pilots License in the U.K.
Join a club and you can fly your balls off for less then a thousand euro a year. Move to Yurp. Germany. The Netherlands. France. And the list goes on. Do something instead of just wishing. Jesus, you need help! Join a gliding club! Do it today!
Wow, skidding all those turns is dangerous, watch the yarn! Also that is like doing a slip and losing altitude, couldn't see if the spoilers were open.
@@legshakermaker1968 I'm sorry. After speaking dutch for 52 years I might have got some bad habits communicating with my fellow humans who can speak only one (less sophisticated) language.
@@forton615 well, firstly I have to apologise for my embarrassing anglophonic assumptions! If it was an isolated occurrence I'd have attributed it to a simple error but, as I'm sure you're aware, the grocer's apostrophe has seriously afflicted our American cousins and is spreading to the UK like a highly infectious virus. To be fair, my experience of travelling in the Netherlands and meeting Dutch people is that your English is generally a notch above that of the average native speaker.
@@legshakermaker1968 Hahaha. But here I have to correct you sir, your guess is too far north. I live in that little country south of our cheese eating wooden shoe wearing friends. The country where we have to switch between Dutch, French or even German (or sign language if you're lost in Brussels). Have a nice day.
@@forton615 I seem to have taken one foot out of my mouth only to create space to insert the other! I'm just going to apologise again and leave it there before I embarrass myself further. ;0)
PL ~~ ATC: Pirat 15, Bez żaglowania, (tylko grawitacja) po starcie w prawo 45* i lewo do lądowania ENG~~ ATC: Pirat 15 (glider type), without ridge flying, (only gravitation flight), after departure turn right 45 degrees after that - turn left for landing Or something like that :D
Wow, not sure how that would get logged by launch type. I've done hundreds of aeros and a few winch (which are very fast), never a self launch, which requires a motor, but this was amazing. I would guess that trying it ub a strong crosswind would take some real skill--you'd have to cross-control all the way downhill then straighten it out fast when airborne. Maybe not a great idea to try it then.
I guess crosswind is exactly the same problem during this launch, as it would be while landing there uphill. Crosswind is crosswind, right? Why mention it? There is a limit. Yeah. Duh.
There are also ground motor vehicles launches, if you have enough space and are willing to selling for very little altitude. I haven't flown for decades and haven't done anything like this downhill coast launch, but I think I would rather try it than get hooked up to a truck.
Was just a little disappointed that there weren't any thermals that would put him higher than the take-off, and have him land right back at the place he took off from. (I would think that's technically possible, but locations that would have those qualities are likely rare.)
Yep. Where was the beeping vario? Why didn't he follow the ridge? This was a bit dissapointing. He just flew down. But this runway is great fun. No winch at the end! That is weird.
The clouds tell a different story. (Doesn't mean that it was accessible during that flight. But I'd assume that the order for a first solo is to put it straight down at the landing site anyway.)
That is some seriously cool shit. Not a drop of fuel burned to get the glider in the air. I’ve done most of my flights from a winch and a few aero-tows. Never seen this before.
Yes, @@Day-wm7nn , but the fuel to drive a small vehicle up the hill will be much less than the fuel for a tow aircraft cycle...and the tow vehicle will be much cheaper to operate. Of course a winch beats either of them, and at this location they routinely launch uphill by winch.
exactly. New airfield, new launch technique => some exercise needed. This particular flight took place in 2014, the requirement for getting approved for this type of launch was 3 flights with an instructor, 2 solo, all short flights just like this one. Then you can use it to go on the ridge if at least 16 kts headwind, or land down below (where the threshold is) and do a classic winch launch (uphill).
It may be a little hard to see, but that’s what the yaw string upon the forward part of the canopy is for. It did show a bit too much rudder input on the turn to final. But mostly ok.
Its not using too much rudder that will cause a spin, too much rudder will just cause a skidding turn. The wing must be stalled and rudder input before a spin will occur. Not looked at the video.
If you like that, paragliding might be for you. I've been in love with it for 20 years. You have to be patient and have the willpower to not fly when the conditions are bad, but it is very safe if you are conservative with your decision making. If you don't have hills around, paramotoring is great too, just noisy.
Awesome. I hope this place has some fantastic lift at the end of the yellow brick road. The vario doesn't look promising. And talk about a short final! So, do they land at the top of the hill, then use this to do a final landing below, all for an altitude gain of... -120 ft.?
No. They no longer land at the top of the hill, but when they did they could cycle back to the same location. Now they normally launch and land at the bottom of the hill, but in the right conditions they can do this launch from the top, land at the bottom, then tow the glider back to the top (with a car).
You know you could walk down that hill in about the same time it took you gliding to the bottom, right? You would even not have to drag a sailplane to the hill top again as an added bonus... As much as I love flying, I hardly can understand what's being achieved here in terms of cost/benefit relation...
