On 7th Sept '08 Jimmie Coulthard wrote :-

I am new to using this site. Can anyone tell me
about winch launching a
Ka8b and what one needs to expect.

Thanks

Jimmie,


Hi Jimmie,

Although advice on wire launching the Ka8 was covered very well by Uli
Neumann I would just like to emphasise a couple of points from personal
experience.

A couple of years ago, I had for some time been only flying the club SZD
'Juniors', which have to be 'encouraged' to climb well on the wire,
otherwise you can end up at 400' over the winch!

One day, seeing the Ka8 laying unused at the lauch point, I thought I
would have a quick flight in it. However, I approched the wire launch in a
rather 'laid back' manner (thinking 'it's only a Ka8') and forgot the
entirely different wire launching characteristics that require keeping the
stick well forward on the ground run! The reasult was that within a few
yards the Ka8 pointed skyward like it was taking off from Cape Canaveral,
but with the tail-skid still dragging along the grass. I got away with it
that time, but if the weak-link or wire had broken it would have been
impossible to have avoided a serious accident!

Thus, remember to initially keep the Ka8 stick well forward at the start
of the launch, but also remember that when you move on to 'glass ships'
they will almost certainly require a different technique!


Regards


Tony (London)