CONTENTS
Gliders are aircraft designed for unpowered flight. They have extremely lightweight bodies, wings with a large surface area and other design features to allow them to stay in the air without the use of a motor. But none of that’s much use if they can’t get off the ground, because launching inevitably requires some energy input.
Luckily, there are a number of different techniques and technologies that are used to launch gliders into the skies. We’re going to explain each of them, along with their advantages and disadvantages - and locations around the UK where you can experience them.
WINCH LAUNCH
The most straightforward of the three, launching a glider with a winch is as simple as attaching the nose of the aircraft to a long cable and pulling on it with the winch! As the glider is accelerated towards the winch, it starts to gain altitude and the pilot disconnects the cable and soars off into the blue.
Winch launching is simple because it’s cheap, efficient and doesn’t require any modifications to the craft. The downsides are that it’s easily hampered by weather conditions. In general, a pilot wants to take off into the wind, as this helps to move air over its wings, and changing the direction of take off when using a winch can be difficult or impossible, depending on the installations on the ground. You can try this kind of gliding for yourself at the Welland Gliding Club in Northamptonshire.
AEROTOW
A solution to the problems that winch launches are vulnerable to is aerotow launching. What does this involve? The clue’s in the name - an aeroplane tows the glider along the runway and into the air. As most airfields have runways that face towards different points of a compass, it only takes the pilot of the plane to choose the optimal direction for take off and taxi into position for the launch to be ready. The Peterborough and Spalding Gliding Club is an example of a club that launches most of its flights in this way.
There are one or two downsides to this technique, however, because it relies on the use of an aeroplane. Even though the tug plane can be fairly lightweight and basic itself, there are operating costs to cover including the fuel, and, of course you need to have a pilot on hand.
MOTOR GLIDERS
So, we want the flexibility to take off in the direction that we want and the ability to fly when we want. Motor gliders might be the answer. These craft have a small motor of their own that powers a propellor and gives the glider enough umph to take to the skies with no cables and no help from planes and pilots. Once the glider has reached a sufficient height, the motor can be turned off and the gliding begins.
The main drawback here is that the weight of an engine seriously affects the aerodynamics of a glider, so these models inevitably lose some of the sleekness and simplicity of completely unpowered models. But it has to be said that the motor can be used during the flight to extend the airtime and travel further, or in case of emergency. Head down to Dunkeswell Aerodrome on the Jurassic Coast in Devon to take a flight with Southwest Motor Gliders.
As you can see, gliding is all about trade-offs between different kinds of freedom. On the one hand is the freedom from cumbersome bits of machinery and other constraints. On the other is the freedom to fly when and how you want to. If you want to know more about the gliding opportunities in the UK, check out our complete introduction to the sport. If you’re a glider yourself and you don’t agree with our evaluations, let us know in the comments!
