[JoeF]

Launches and landing zones (LZs) in USA
Blog start notes:

Blog purpose: To enrich US Hawks' awareness of launching sites and landing zones for hang gliding in order to advance cooperation, success, and safety.

Blog rules: At each post, place a subject as such: State: Site Name In this way a tag for each site may be approximately traced. Content about a launch or LZ is to be the focus. Correct errors of information when possible.

Who may post? Anyone.

Disclaimers and Recommendations: What is found in our posts may not be fact. Contact local guides and mentors to sharpen site information. Use sites only after obtaining the best information within one's reach and close to the time of use. Stating items about a site does not mean that permissions are obtained; verify one's own permission status before using a site. Clear all safety matters for a chosen flight system and event. Protect the interests of our hang gliding community: TIA .

Launches and LZs may respect various styles of hang gliding and niche hang gliding activity
[The following list is incomplete; please state other launching styles and special hang gliding activity. Launching-and-landing systems may perhaps be with Safe-Splat arrangements.]

== Wing running only (hold-only WR or hold-and-hung WR)
== Wing running and ground skimming
== Conservative hang gliding
== Fledgling or bunny slope launching
== Open hang gliding
== Cross country XC hang gliding
== Conservative towing launching
== Open-towing launching
== Aero-towing launching
== Static-line tow launching
== Bungee launching
== Catapult launching
== Moving ground-based tow vehicle towing with fixed-line
== Moving ground-based tow vehicle towing with payout from platform launch
== Scooter towing launching with or without return pulley
== Cliff launching
== Mountain-ramp launching
== Urban artificial-ramp launching
== Static-line(s) kite system launch of hang glider using various mooring methods
== Balloon-launching
== Blimp-platform launching
== Release HG from piggyback using powered aircraft as mother ship
== Deployed airframed HG following drop from powered aircraft (this was accomplished with some inflated-beams in early 1960s unmanned; the future might find some use of such method even with rigid-beamed morphable HGs. As yet, this activity is not being seen.]
== Release HG from piggyback using sailplane as mother ship
== B.A.S.E. HG launch
== eFLPHG Auxiliary electrical motor launching of one's hang glider; (keep or drop motor)
== iceFLPHG Auxiliary internal-combustion engine launching of one's hang glider (keep or drop engine)
== Airport launch
== ?

LZ Landing arrangements
[The following list is incomplete; please state other landing styles and special hang gliding landing activity. Landing systems may perhaps be with Safe-Splat arrangements.]

== Established LZ
== Emergency LZ
== Water-body LZ (especially when water-landing safety devices are integrated in the hang glider system)
== Large catch-netting LZ
== Arresting-lines LZ
== Clean-sand LZ
== High-brush LZ
== Bouldered LZ
== Tree-canopy-net LZ
== Blimp-top-platform LZ
== Balloon-catch LZ
== Ship-or-barge-platform LZ
== Powered-aircraft-catch LZ
== Fly-on-wall-mountain LZ
== Fly-on-wall-artificial-incline LZ
== Parachutal small-space LZ
== Top-landing-at-launch-zone LZ
== Static-kite-system-catch LZ
== Rooftop LZ
== Moving-ground-vehicle-platform LZ
== Available-roadway LZ
== Drop-away-from-wing-to-water LZ
== Drop-away-from-wing-for-final-pilot-parachute LZ (Perhaps wing could be a RC glider unto itself.)
== Airport LZ
== Ice-field LZ
== Snow-field LZ
== ?

[Bill Cummings]

Launch location: Multiple locations possible.
Moving ground-based tow vehicle towing with fixed-line.
Moving ground-based tow vehicle towing with payout from platform launch.
Scooter towing launching with or without return pulley.

Abandoned railroad grades have been converted into snowmobile trails in Minnesota for years. The rails an ties had been pulled on some grades but left in place on others.

I once owned a 1967 Camero convertible that had wide “Rally Tires. This vehicle spanned the railroad rails exactly.

We would line up the tires with the rails at a road crossing, put the top down, put the car in first gear, let it move down the track at idle speed, climb over the front seats and sit on the trunk with our feet resting on the rear seats. The wide Rally Tires cupped the rails and it was not necessary to let any air out of the tires like was necessary for regular width tires to keep from jumping off the rails. (Derailing). No one need be steering while engaging in this foolishness.

When I first started hang gliding in 1978 the idea of using snowmobile railroad trails during the summertime, some with or without rails, without congestion,
crept into my mind.

One drawback was, abandoned railroad grades that had the rails and ties removed now doubled as an off road vehicle trail during the summer.

The abandoned railroad grades that still had the rails in place were totally a waste UNLESS you could figure out how to tow on them.

I’m sure many of you have seen the railroad maintenance pickup trucks with the railroad wheels mounted on the front and back bumpers. Need I say more?

Hopefully some of you Tow Heads are now thinking, I KNOW JUST THE SPOT!
(watch out for power lines crossing the RR tracks.)

Using a stationary winch and a launch dolly that is equipped for riding the rails will be a great benefit for crosswind days. As you get the dolly moving the relative crosswind direction becomes less progressively as you gain more speed. This will mitigate the crosswind problem much like a platform launching truck does at an airport or on a road.
It would be nice if we could find a website with a map of abandoned rail lines.

[JoeF]

Nice, BillC.
Here is a starting point.
http://www.abandonedrails.com/

[Bob Kuczewski]

Why look for abandoned tracks?

I'll bet a train would make an awesome platform launch vehicle!!



Only kidding.  

[JoeF]

Why look for abandoned tracks?

I'll bet a train would make an awesome platform launch vehicle!!



Only kidding.  

BobK, actually you are mentioning a cousin method to many railed considerations that kite-energy industry is exploring. Use powered railed cars to launch tethered large kites; then once the wings are in upper airs, stop the power in the railed cars, then have the kites controlled to drag the railed cars around an elliptical track. The railed cars' axles are driving electric generators to produce electricity for remote use. In another version the railed cars drag a continuous cable where that cable then drives under-rail electric generators.

As for HG launch: An elliptical railed powered car could drive a cable with hook-in stations: Tow up scores of HGs in minutes. Many details are to be explored.

Another railed launch: Not to forget railed drop of masses that then tow off HGs. Many variations possible.

[JoeF]

The national treasure of seashore cliffs at Torrey Pines region provide regularly an airspace open to people for gliding and soaring. Launching into the cliff lift may be accomplished in scores of ways. Identifying the various launch means in detail will probably unfold in published text over time. The common launch from the grassed part of the public park is one of the launches which has been well visited in text and video; other launches to get into the lift permitted because of the cliffs are less well described yet.
The most-used launch is one that is sadly managed: http://sandiegofreeflight.com/jm170/ima ... chool2.jpg
Consider using the national airspace in the cliffs' lift zone by using launches that do not involve that piece of grass.

What are launches that do not use that piece of grass?
== Ocean opportunities: kiting launching in various ways
== Soaring from remote launches
== Motor HGs; then power off and soar into the cliffs' lift zone
== Aero tow and ten release HG; then soar into the cliffs' lift zone
== Are there lease opportunities from the golf course?
==

[Bob Kuczewski]

What are launches that do not use that piece of grass?
== Ocean opportunities: kiting launching in various ways
== Soaring from remote launches
== Motor HGs; then power off and soar into the cliffs' lift zone
== Aero tow and ten release HG; then soar into the cliffs' lift zone
== Are there lease opportunities from the golf course?

These are all good ideas, but none of them are as easy or natural as simply launching from the cliff that the City of San Diego has provided for us to use. The problem is that the City has not been willing to oversee the operation of that site, and that's what needs to be fixed.

I think it would be fun and interesting to explore lots of those alternatives. But a public park belongs to the people, and that needs to be fixed regardless of what other fun opportunities we might have.