On Monday, July 18, 2016 at 1:06:39 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
Suggest you consider a 2:1 pulley launch. Gets the rope up off the concrete during the launch very quickly.

We've done 10 or so at Sunflower. 4000 feet of rope on a 7000 ft runway. Easy 1500 ft launches in our nose hook equipped 2-33.

Only time the rope drags on the runway is when (very slowly) resetting the rope after the launch.

I'm not sure I see much advantage of a 2:1 system (assuming you mean the reverse-driving vehicle has a pulley as well). Wouldn't you still be dragging 4,000 ft of rope behind the tow vehicle (from the fixed pulley)? It hardly seems worth the extra rigging trouble...but I've never done it either. My primary concern is rope wear, and I'm not seeing much improvement with that. Please let me know what I am missing.

Stephen