Taildraging histart!

[Skysailer]

So today I was flying my Xpro off a histart. There was a medium breeze and it was possible to get a resonable zoom at the top of launch. Anyway on the fateful lauch the plane gave a sickening lurch at the zoom up stage. Instead of racing away vertically it did a flick and started flying backwards! Then I realized that the parachute of the histart was caught on the tailfin and the plane was steadily being dragged backwards. I tried every differant control movement, full flaps, aileron etc but the histart had full control of the plane, which was fluttering backwards and downwards like an oversized leaf. That decent from launch height takes quite a while - like an eternity! Anyway I was lucky - it hit the ground fairly level and nothing broke. The towhook acted like an arrestor hook - it was clogged up with grass tufts.

So my question is: how hard can you pitch up to zoom and not have the chute get involved in the tail?
Eric

[StevenatorLTFO]

I've had em hang up a time or too, and usually I could fly down ok by staying in an area that kept the tension off of the line. I wonder if in your case, maybe it got stuck and jammed a control somehow. There was a supra at the nats last week, that snagged the line on a zoom, and the line ended up wedged between the flaps at the center of the center section, and cause alot of havoc, but the eventual outcome was ok.

Steve

[O.L. Adcock]

Personally I've never "zoomed" off a hi-start. Don't know why anyone would would want to cause you'll gain more altitude riding it out and or "kiting" as best you can as you lose tension. Don't know what the pitch angle would be but I'd say you crossed it! :)....O.L.

[IHAVAWDY]

All due respect O.L., I have zoomed off highstarts and gotten far better launches then just riding it out. The wind has to be decent, and of course, fairly straight in but yeah, definitely higher launches with zoom if high start is fully stretched and rubber is off the deck before initiating zoom.

[tonyestep]

Eric, when you zoom from a hi-start it's quite a bit different from a winch zoom. Everything is in slow motion. You need some wind so that you can hold tension in the rubber; then you push over, build up a little speed, and ping. You definitely won't get as big a boost as from a winch, but you can certainly get something.

When the wind is strong, you can get a good zoom from a regular hi-start, but when the wind is weak it helps to have strong rubber. The guys around here use a total length of about 150' (rubber plus line). A Zlog of two launches made one evening this week by my flying buddy Glauco is attached. You can see the pre-zoom dive as the kink at the left edge of each plot. The first time he dove from about 130' to about 100', then zoomed to 210'. The second time there was more wind, so he dove from about 180 to about 170', then zoomed to 285!

One day last winter I was flying off a regular hi-start with clubmate Paul Luebke. The wind was blowing about 12 mph. I had a launch where I started my dive at 500' and zoomed to 610', but Paul beat me with a zoom to 625'!!

So again, the technique is to get a tight stretch, push over until the plane is accelerating, then ping quick and be ready to round it over quick. Don't dive into the bucket, or you'll tangle your tail, as you found out.

[lincoln]

If the high start gets to a high angle with tension still on it, a zoom is the only way I know to recover any of that energy.

I once got the retriever line snagged on the tail of my glider. The winch line kept it from moving back, and the retriver pulled back on the tail, so it stayed straight and level all the way to the ground. I screamed at the guy running the winch line to stop, but everyone else was worried about the line getting behind a tree and kept yelling at him to go. It was very frustrating, but somehow nothing got broken. I don't know what all those people were thinking.

[Grunta5]

Scary! , Ive had my line fail to release a few times on my sailplanes, I think its caught on my tailplane once or twice too, Ive been lucky and flew circles within the limits of the line tension so it didnt affect the glider.. I dont use a chute but a pennent and thats probally half my trouble as it doesnt have enough drag to move back to release...
think ill start using a chute... :-)
Ps: I dont usually zoom, but casually fly off , that probally doesnt help either...

[tonyestep]

"...casually fly off , that probally doesnt help..."
==============
A little ping is probably safer, once you get the knack. Plus if you just fly off, you're not using the energy that's stored in the stretched rubber and giving up altitude.

[O.L. Adcock]

Seen the retrievers get hung up and I had a 1/3rd scale ASW-20 get hung up on a winch on it's maiden flight. Just circled the turnaround and landed uneventfully with a lot of pucker factor! :)

As for zooming off highstarts...I've always used a chute, never in winds over 5kts, and they were probably wimpier then what you guys zoom off of. That's OK, zoom on! :)....O.L.