TV Ad featuring Klaus Ohlmann and an Antares 23E

At 14:18 01 October 2016, Dan Marotta wrote:
Mike,

Thanks for that story about Harris Hill. Did any of the gliders you
launched land back on top or did they land in the valley?

I used to go on ground launch safari with my partner in our LS-6a
using
a 1,000' rope. Each flight would be straight out with the partner
bringing the trailer and we'd switch off each day. What a great
time it
was.

Dan


Dan,

It was after a cold front had passed with winds 15+ Kts from the
NW. We launched directly into the ridge lift, and all flights
recovered back on top of Harris Hill....As a matter of fact, every auto
tow launch that I have ever been involved with on Harris hill was
when the ridge was working, and every one of those flights landed
back on top.....

Karl Striedieck has been doing Jeep launches from Eagle Filed for
~40 years. His strip runs parallel to the ridge on top. He uses a
little longer rope so that one can climb up to just over tree top
height before releasing and turning into the ridge lift. Many of his
records were set utilizing the Jeep launch method. Back in early
1985, I was trying to decide which glider to fly at the WGC in Rieti.
KS had just gotten the first Discus in country, so I dragged my DG-
300 to the ridge for some comparison tests. It was also after a
front had passed, so there was good ridge and thermal lift. We
watered up to the max, and Jeep launched. (Karl's first flight in the
new Discus..) Went from ridge to thermals, collected all the
comparison data, then dumped water, climbed up and did it all
again dry. Next, we landed, cut up duct tape into 1/4" squares,
used that to "bug up" the wings, watered up to the max again, and
Jeep launched back into the ridge lift to do the whole process all
over again in "dirty" configuration, both heavy and light. It was a
great day, and led me to overwhelmingly conclude that I needed to
switch from my DG-300 to a Discus-b. Done correctly, it can be a
lot of fun...

RO