Other than tossing, anyone considered alternate schemes for launching a rocket glider to limited altitude for testing purposes (or just plain fun?)

Was thinking the ejecting-pod type (sky dart, etc) gliders might be launchable with a bow and an arrow-on-a-string inserted in place of the pod, probably with some kind of soft expanded head to fill out the diameter to that of the boost pod, and as a safety feature if the arrow comes back at you after being yanked out by the string.

Dropping one off a larger R/C plane or tall building might be another option.

I used to stick my gliders on the end of a bamboo fishing pole. I'd stick the pole up into the air then jerk it so the glider fell free. It seemed to be a better way to test the glider than hand launching it.

-- Roger

What about the good ol' rubber-band-on-a-stick catapult (with a suitably located hook on the glider of course)? Or, expanding on that, a very light-duty high start as is used to launch RC gliders....

__________________
Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

That's what I was thinking. There is a form of competition in the freeflight world for catapult launched gliders (CLG) as opposed to hand launched gliders (HLG).

Sam

For testing, I would only want enough altitude and airspeed to make it stable, so that it won't have a high speed crash. I think I'd at least start out with hand tossing. For fun , BEC's suggestion of a "high-start lite" was the first thing I thought about for the flatlander folks.

__________________
I love sanding.

Find an open hill to hand toss gliders, there's enough room to actually see what the glider does in flight.
It helps to have a youngster along to retrieve the glider for you.(it's good exercise for the child)
Mark T

Lately most of my RG's have been converted models designed for R/C discus-launched flying. They have a dowel pin through one wing tip, and like a discus you just sort of fling it into the air to launch it. I'm not very good at it yet, but for a C-class model roughly 24" span I can get maybe 30 seconds of flight in dead air and a minute with a little thermal/lift.

--Chan Stevens

Ace RCRG pilot and FAI Medal winner Bob Parks recommends flying them with VERY low power.

He always makes the first flight of his RG's, designed to fly with E motors, on a C6-0.

If anything's amiss on the boost trim, it's probably not going to be fatal, and if it's OK, you have one flight under your belt to build confidence in your new airplane.

__________________
A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But high above the quiet streets on the 12th floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions. Guy Noir, Private Eye.

Fox Valley Rocketeers: http://www.foxvalleyrocketeers.org