Lens Dolly

I have been the proud owner of this Discus 2b glider for over 5 years now and have

barely ever flown it due mainly to my reluctance to launch it off the slope by hand or

by using a tug, which can be fraught with all sorts of dangers.

Just recently I decided that the time had come to sort this out, so I took the leap

forward (or backwards depending on your point of view) and fitted an electric motor to the front of it. This would give me a much wider scope to flying sites, especially

Chedworth where I can take advantage of the very good thermal activities in that area, once the trials of running the motor in flight from Selsley had been done and bearing in mind that I had already tried using a bungie launch system off the slope and the airfield it was obvious to me that in order to launch the model safely I needed a much more conventional approach to the problem.

After watching Alan King’s glider being towed up behind Mario’s tug using a wire dolly until airborne it seemed like a good idea to use a similar system for the Discus.

Here’s where the good old Internet comes in handy, just type the words sailplane dolly in your search engine and hey presto someone has already solved the problem. A quick look at the parts used and it’s off to the nearest D.I.Y. shop (actually it was the local plumb centre) to buy the bits you need.

The results of which can be seen above, it works extremely well on all types of gliders up to 8Kgs so if you need any details give me a call.

Will publish more action photo’s later

Len Gardiner