On 2008-04-07, Mike Isaksen wrote:

"Alan" wrote ...
Bertie the Bunyip writes:
I will fly as long as there is air. Gasoline be damned.
I started without it and I'll finish withour if needs be.

You say you started without - how?
Even gliders seem to need tows.

Maybe he'll build an electric motor rope launch skid powered by wind
turbines.

You don't even need a winch. Just find a suitable hill and bungee launch
off it - it's *people* giving the initial run of energy for the glider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6-EeuEi-KY

In any case, a winch is quite frugal, our Jaguar 4.2L based winch uses less
than 1/3rd gallon to launch a glider (in comparison, an aerotow to 2000'
uses about 2 gal). An electric winch would be even better - electric
motors have ideal characteristics for winch launching since they have
huge amounts of torque at low RPM, so it would give a really good pull
from a standing start. The challenge in building an electric winch is
the cost. Building a gasoline powered winch is cheap - a 6 or 8 cylinder
engine out of a scrapped car costs very little and works very well. The
batteries for an electric winch would be expensive however you cut it,
without getting on to obtaining a suitable traction motor.

Finally, there's always hang gliding. Find a suitable slope, and run
into the wind. Of course this demands a certain level of fitness that
seems to be absent from a large proportion of the population.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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