How Does a glider get off the ground?

There are five principal ways that a glider can be launched.

This is the method we employ at Booker. Using one of our five tug aircraft, launching is speedy, efficient and gives the greatest chance of contacting lift initially.

The glider is attached to a powered plane by means of a long nylon rope. At each end is a 'weak-link' which acts as a sort of fuse. The link at the plane end is set to 1000lbs and at the glider to 800lbs, the tug plane takes up the slack in the rope, signalled by a wing-tip holder and then accelerates over the ground. The glider is airborne some time before the tug and it is the glider pilots job to not let the glider get above the tug. When ready, the glider pilot pulls the yellow release knob and the rope comes free. The main advantage of aerotowing is that the glider pilot can decide when and where to release, the tug pilot (who is usually a glider pilot also) can tow the glider to a part of the sky offering the best lift.

This is where a stationery winch engine is positioned at the far end of the field and a steel cable is attached to the glider. When the wing tip holder signals 'all-out', the cable is wound in at high speed and the glider accelerates very quickly. It then rotates into a fairly nose-high attitude and climbs to the top of the cable where the pilot releases and the cable then descends back to the ground by means of a parachute. The main advantage of winching is that it is cheaper than aerotowing, although usually the launch height is limited and if you aren't lucky enough to find a thermal within the first minute or two, the pilot is committed to landing.

Autotowing is similar to winching, except that the motive power this time is in the form of a vehicle. Usually this is carried out on a runway where the glider is towed behind the vehicle until it is as high as the rope will allow when it releases. This method is quite rare, nowadays, and launch heights tend to be quite low.

Bungee launches are probably the rarest type of launch today, it can only be used from the top of a hill when the wind is blowing strongly enough at it to cause ridge lift. - I can only think of one site that uses this (The Midland Gliding Club at The Long Mynd) This is where an elasticised rope, or 'bungee' is attached to the glider in a 'Y'shape. Six strong volunteers then take an end each, the tip of the 'Y' being attached to the glider. When the command 'walk' is given, the volunteers begin walking down the hill taking up slack, when the command 'run' is given, they then run and when the tension is sufficient, the glider is released and zooms over the heads of the volunteers and into the ridge lift. Advantage of this it is an exhilarating way to get airborne, provided you're not one of the volunteers on the rope!

Nowadays, there are an increasing number of gliders that are fitted with an engine usually behind the cockpit, that can be extended allowing the pilot to take off under their own power. The engine can then be retracted when lift is found and the aircraft is then flown as a normal glider. The advantages are obvious, however, the disadvantages to this method is that the pilot needs to have a private pilots licence for self-launching motor gliders, these gliders can be considerably more expensive than a conventional glider and can be quite noisy.