Alternate launch scheme for testing Rocket Gliders?

[GlueyFingers]

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.

[jadebox]

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

[BEC]

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....

[sam_midkiff]

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....

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

[tbzep]

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.

[snuggles]

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

[chanstevens]

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

[GuyNoir]

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.