What is the best technique for hand launching? I am relatively new to combat and could use some tips in this area. Is over-head or under-hand the preferred method? Which is the most consistent/easiest? I am a bit nervous about this style because the last thing I want to do is end my day early with a bad launch.

I have seen many guys at the local club destroy their planes with bad launches (all over-head launches). I purchased a catapult for the club to remedy this but it is a bit clumsy and requires 2 people to operate properly. Any tips or help in this area would be really helpful!

I will be starting out with JKA FW190's with Magnum 25's for power this year (if that matters). Thanks!

Hi Kurt,

I hope you recognize the signifigance of your name in aviation history?

Is that your real name or did you pick it for posts. If it is real is it a coincidence that you picked a FW 190 for firsrt combat a/c.?

Not my real name, I really like the look of the FW's. I think they were wonderfully designed, so I picked Kurt Tank as a joke/tribute. This has nothing to do with Nazi's, I am just an admirer of the aircraft. Any tips for launching?

Hold the fuselage at or slightly forward of the CG and give her a slight underhand toss and you're up and flying!

I also prefer the underhanded launch. You can throw it with authority. With an overhand launch it is much easier to put a twist in the throw that is almost impossible to recover from.

I take a step forward and toss at the same time. If you have some tall grass or brush to throw into you can practice it without the engine running.

Go with underhand but be prepared for the engine torque effect. My JKA MiGs bank hard to the left upon release. Have someone throw it for you the first few flights and be prepared to throw full right aileron (low rates) into it until it gets up to speed. I launch my MiGs on low rates and hold full right aileron for release. About 50' later you can center the stick.

Kurk,

Being a newbie this year to hand launches, I understand the apprehension. For my open planes, I overhand launch with about the same throw as throwing a football on an easy 10 yard pass, slightly above the horizon. My scale I launch underhanded.

I fly alot more open than scale so I am most comfortable with the overhand toss.

I would start out with a cheapy open plane to practice hand launches, I'd hate to see a new scale plane dinged up. And th esuggestion to launch toward tall grass is a good one!

Make sure you have an experienced pilot help you (with hand launches), don't launch a new airplane that has not been trimmed out by yourself. Set the plane with slight elevator up trim to guarrantee it will climb out. Don't over control, or pull up immediately after launch. If you have a good throw, you should not have to pull up, but only worry about aileron trim. ALWAYS, I MEAN ALWAYS toss DIRECTLY INTO the wind! I am still learning how to do cross wind launches, but they are alot more trouble, your success rate will remain higher with direct wind launches.

I'm right handed, but throw with my left hand, holding the tranmitter with my right thumb on the right stick and holding the transmitter up against my armpit.

I haven't flown an airplane with wheels in 6 months now, I'm ruined!

The main thing I have trouble with on the overhand is exhaust fumes/oil in the eyes..I rub the throttle stick on my leg to get full throttle, and a underhand toss. Then you have your right hand to run the ele/ail..just my preference.

I throttle up with my lower lip, with my computer radio, I'm afraid I might accidently flip my dual rates switch.

My engines are canted 45 degrees and the pipe is going directly under the plane, so its not spitting directly at my face....

I like the underhand toss. I throw it left-handed to have my right hand on the aileron-elevator stick. I also use a neckstrap on my tx, which actually complicates things a little, but works fine.

Take a step with the airplane, and use a full arm swing. You want to get a night high release speed, but you don't want sudden accleration getting there. If you accelerate too hard, the fuel will surge to the back of the tank, and the engine will sag at just the perfectly wrong time.

Here is a picture of me throwing one of my A class planes. Note the direction of the flag at the tip of the antenna, I'm thowing in to a pretty good crosswind here. I've also had to thow downwind. In those kinds of cases, I just try to throw a little harder, and at a slightly more vertical angle. I then let the nose start dropping a bit on it's own to avoid a stall. In a crosswind, you can expect the plane to yaw, either into the wind, or sometimes downwind, depending on your throw, the wind, and the airplane. I usually let it go a few degrees rather than trying to react too fast. Over-reaction will lead to a crash for sure. Because I like to let the plane fly a bit, I always lanch away from people, regarless of the wind. People who handlanch parallel to the pilot line give me the willies.



Here I'm thowing my B class plane in a heavy left-to-right wind. Note that the wind has gotten under the left wing, and the plane is starting a right turn. This was an underhanded lanch, but you can see how high up the plane already is, and you can see the "follow through" and the fact that I use my whole body to step in to the arm swing.



The earlier suggestions of trying it over tall grass for the first few times are good ones.

Oh, I don't trim in up elevator on launch either, I try to be trimmed for straight and level. The launch leaves the plane nose-up, and I want the plane to stay in the attitude I give it for climb out.

If I don't have a helper, underhanded all the way. Even with my Enya .19-powered Mig 7, a gentle underhanded swing is all it takes to get it into the air.

Montague, those are some great pics showing what I thought
would be an impossible task! I had already given up on trying to
hand-launch my Pica P-51B mustang. In fact, I put the gear on it
to ROG. Maybe I should give the underhanded method a try. The
problem is, I already installed the engine inverted, and would
surely get trashed at the first belly landing! Maybe I'll order a new
cowl...

Thanks for the help! I will certainly give this a try. Pretty deep snow here in Maine right now which should give me a good cushion for a bad toss (good for practice).

Always good to run across a fellow New England combat pilot! What part of Maine do you live in?

If you're planning on flying Combat in New England this season, drop me a line at [email protected] for the latest contest info. Most NE contest dates are still in the planning stages. But, the North Eastern Nats will be held in Salem, CT on June 14th, Hadley, MA is usually held in Late July and Ellington, CT is usually held in ealy September. Bloomfield, CT might be able to have a combat contest this year. Several combat contests might be held in NH, but there are some changes going on with the folks up that way and we'll need to see what happens.

As for launching, underhand is the the method I prefer as well.

The transmitter is in my left hand (out of view) with the antenna pointed down and away from the plane.

To help with the "swing to the left from torque", try launching with the right wing down as shown. MUCH more managable.

D

I will have to attend at least one of those events, as a spectator that is. Our club (Propsnappers) is just starting to take the combat idea seriously and I will get my practice in with my fellow club members. My goal would be to compete in a larger event by summer 2004. I actually started last year with a global ME109 that screamed with a magnum 25. But it was very twitchy (maybe a little tail heavy and throws too aggressive) and made of balsa, sooooo my career ended very quickly last summer. This year I figured I would work smarter not harder so I am getting some JKA kits. This looks like it will be a fun summer ahead!

Great form, D . You don't have any problems not having a had on the aileron/elevator stick in bad winds? I agree that in good conditions with a trimmed out plane, right handed is "more natural" feeling for some guys, I just hated the delay getting back to the sticks.

Oh, one thing about left handed lanches (or right handed if your engine is inverted). You kind of have to watch the exhaust blast. It doesn't happen often, but it is possible to wind up with oil in the face or eyes on lanch. It's only happened to me once, and not nearly bad enough to cause me to loose sight or control of my plane, but it didn't taste very good. My wife hates it when I come home from a contest, all that holding the plane with my left hand makes my clothing smell of burt fuel for at least the next two washes, I'm told . I love the smell of caster in the morning. Smells like victory. My wife however, doesn't seem to agree.

Kurt,
Don't worry about being "practiced" before coming to a contest. There are always lots of guys who are just getting started, and always guys willing to help out. Last year was actually my first season, I just jumped right in, and did rather well for myself. Would you beleive that I had never cut a streamer until my first live contest? And I only managed 2 or 3 flights towing one to get the feel of my plane. I was a bit unprepared, but it was a huge amount of fun, and well worth it. And it's not like you spend a lot on entry fees or anything, so you have nothing to loose and a lot of fun to gain by just going out and flying.

Oh, another thing that just occured to me about hand launching, no matter what style you use.

Have no fear. My worst launches have all been when I was most worried about getting a good launch. The best were when I wasn't thinking so much about it. When you worry too much, you get hesitant, and you don't get a good solid, smooth motion with solid follow through, and as a result, the airplane either leaves with out enough airspeed, or the throw was too sudden, and the engine sags.

So, Relax, take a deep breath, and try not to worry about it. Besides, most combat airplanes aren't going to be damaged by a 6' drop on to a grass field, it's about as mild of a crash as they will ever see.

Har har har...

Actually, that foot is up to prevent it from stepping on (and tearing off) my streamer.

I hold the transmitter from the top with my left hand with my left thumb on the right stick. I fly it out with my left thumb and switch to my right thumb when the plane is settled into a nice climb (about 15' to 25' out).

I don't recomend this method to everyone, it just happens to be what feels comfortable to me.

One thing that I did when learning how to launch underhanded was to throw a brick until I found a style that worked consistantly for me. Took all of about 5 minutes to get a system down pat. Then, I had some confidence in what I was about to do on that first time out.

D

If you think THAT shows style, check this out:

Ah yes, the good old .15 powered planes that took far more OOMPH to get 'em airborne.

This shot does show how I hold the transmitter though.

D

D,

Ok, that way of holding the TX is just plain strange . But anything that works, right?

The brick idea is a good one, I'll have to remember that.

here is a video pair of me launching a few combat spads.
the second one shows what can happen if the gods arent smiling on you. it also shows the real beauty of spads. sometimes the server wont let you see the videos due to bandwidth....try again later.

you must copy and paste link in address bar to view...you can NOT just click on it.

http://www.geocities.com/buckeyes1997/Capture.avi

http://www.geocities.com/buckeyes1997/spitlaunch.avi

Hy... i´m new to that kind of launching too.. and also afraid of hand-tossing my P-38 very carefully built ;-) .. it´s a twin engine... and i´d like to know if instead of hand-launching it... i could build a little car .. with a support (like a filed-box).. and put some wheels.. and make it run through the runaway.. then the plane goes UP.. and the wheels and the stuff stays down !
Any ideas ? anyone ?;-)
tnks
Rodrigo Meira

Have gear that just fall away, like a dolly. 2 spokes could fit very loose into 2 tubes in the wings, when the planes lifts up the gear fall off.

We fly a lot of electrics so no fuel in the eyes. Try throwing a baseball bat to develop a feel for a good overhand toss. Bat should land flat.

Have gear that just fall away, like a dolly. 2 spokes could fit very loose into 2 tubes in the wings, when the planes lifts up the gear fall off.