There may be hope for GM yet..

[Schroeder]

The winch is a American V8 car engine from the mid 50ies and it is mounted on a German WWII truck.
It pulls the glider from 0 to 50 m.p.h. in about 2.5 sec. (well I didn't use a stop watch this is rather a gut feeling but you are in no time at take off speed)

[Jimbuna]

A sowing machine

Whatever next?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

The winch is a American V8 car engine from the mid 50ies and it is mounted on a German WWII truck.
It pulls the glider from 0 to 50 m.p.h. in about 2.5 sec. (well I didn't use a stop watch this is rather a gut feeling but you are in no time at take off speed)

That looks exacly like how we launch RC gliders. Only we use a starting motor from a V8 :rotfl:

Im curious what is the average altitude at release? Do you have find some lift SOON or else start planning your approach soon?

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

That looks exacly like how we launch RC gliders. Only we use a starting motor from a V8 :rotfl:

Im curious what is the average altitude at release? Do you have find some lift SOON or else start planning your approach soon?

It depends on the wind direction and speed. Our usual release altitude is between 300 and 400m (ca. 900-1200feet). Our runway is 1000m (ca 1100 yards) long. If we don't find any thermal we are down again within 8-10min. If we even get downwinds we are on the ground again after 4 minutes (at least that was my shortest flight so far).
But it also depends very much on the plane you use. The one in the vid is an ASK13 which is a rather old double seated school plane made of wood, canvas and a steel pipe frame. It has a less than stellar performance but it is forgiving, cheap, easy to repair and by that an ideal school plane for small clubs like ours. If you take more modern single seated planes made of GRP then your chances of staying in the air are much better.