$1 billion BMS Ooops...

I have yet to see a glider take off (bungee launches excepted) or return from a field without an engine.

See and believe:
https://youtu.be/_JNg9zwvDkI?list=PLC40EB4949AD5395B

Been there, done that. With a favorable wind one circle was enough to get high over the heads of the observers at the gravity launch site, and hours long ridge/wave soaring was possible.

BTW, Bezmiechowa is the place where Wanda Modlibowska set a new women's duration record of 24 hours 14 minutes in May 1937. When I was there for the first time, other pilots from our group did night ridge soaring in a 'Bocian' glider (by design equipped with position lights). The ridge line was marked with a series of campfires.

In 1993-95 night flights were still part of the training for licensed glider pilots in some places in Poland. Happy to have that exotic (and extinct?) endorsement in my logbook.

Just keen memories in a thread about dreams about self-launching gliders (in expectation of a new soaring season).

Tom BravoMike wrote on 3/7/2021 5:48 PM:

I have yet to see a glider take off (bungee launches excepted) or return from a field without an engine.

See and believe:
https://youtu.be/_JNg9zwvDkI?list=PLC40EB4949AD5395B

Been there, done that. With a favorable wind one circle was enough to get high over the heads of the observers at the gravity launch site, and hours long ridge/wave soaring was possible.

BTW, Bezmiechowa is the place where Wanda Modlibowska set a new women's duration record of 24 hours 14 minutes in May 1937. When I was there for the first time, other pilots from our group did night ridge soaring in a 'Bocian' glider (by design equipped with position lights). The ridge line was marked with a series of campfires.

In 1993-95 night flights were still part of the training for licensed glider pilots in some places in Poland. Happy to have that exotic (and extinct?) endorsement in my logbook.

Just keen memories in a thread about dreams about self-launching gliders (in expectation of a new soaring season).

Bungee AND gravity launch! Yahoo!

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1