I have a zagi le and i would like to build a towhook\launchhook. What should I make it out of and hoe to atach it to my wing?

Jason

Jason,

Where are you located?
If you are anywhere near me, than I would be happy to help you get a towhook set up on your wing.
Not looking to sell you anything, just want to help. I install bungee/highstart hooks for friends all the time on their wings.

You are welcome to call anytime 480-593-2458

Justin

If not near Jason, try
http://www.winglauncher.com/
Works well with my zagi 400x (although I have not flown it much since I got my BOP).
Crash
P.S. Hi, Jason!

I live in Tucson. THanks for the help.


Jason

What part of Tucson?
I may be down there Friday.
Or, if you want to come up to Mesa, I would be happy to install a removable/adjustable hook system, and then we could go do some flying (winch/highstart/bungee or whatever).

Justin

I live on the North west side. We usally fly off A mountain SLOPING that is. If you do come down we will probley be flyin if the wind is right. let me know if you come down we'll fly some where i hope. I will try to have a tow hook installed and my home made high start done soon i hope.


Jason

I did this for a Zagi THL that wouldn't "T" from a "HL". I made a plate out of thin light plywood, shaped kind of like a home plate in baseball, maybe five inches across. I cut a slot in this, and placed a vertical panel of the same lite ply into it, so from the end it looks like a letter "t". Where the plates join at 90-degree angles I used some thin strip stock fillets and CA glue, that's it. The thin, narrow top protruding part of the T fits into a thin narrow slot in the foam so the plate lays flush to the aircraft's bottom, then the whole plate assembly is taped onto the bottom of the Zagi, that's all it takes to make a quite rigid mount that can be repositioned or removed at will. The vertical part of the mount has a hook or question-mark shaped ramped cutout in it's forward area. i just carved this freehand with a sharp xacto knife, radius the cut so the tow ring has no place it ca hang up, and cut the ramp slot so the ring will tend to slide off if not under forward tension. If you wanna get fancy, you can glass this with some cloth and epoxy or CA for extra strength, but mine doesn't seem to need it. The piece hanging down is almost like a very short skeg, but more importantly, it provides a suitable under-wing grip for launching one-handed, feels like launching the conventional paper dart airplane shape. I am going to re-position mine a little more aft of it's intial position: while it towed safe and stable, the climb wasn't all I'd hoped for. This is endemic to flying wings and deltas, they are harder to launch as high as a conventional-winged plane, and less efficient during the climb at high AOA. But they go FAST on tow, and you can convert that forward speed into a nice zoom climb instead;-)