Please refer to swedishaerosport.se/videos.html for the full take-off technique text
You are trying to run very fast while you are buckled in equipment that weighs 60 or 70 kg. In other words you are doing something that sounds impossible. But it is quite easy actually.
The best way to do it is also the easiest: let the machines do the hard work
In more detail: Your aim is to run very fast without any effort. You let the wing take a large percentage of your weight early on during the running and you let the engine push you foward. The only thing you will need to do is move your legs and keep the wing in balance (both in pitch and roll). At some point you will be running so fast that the wing will lift you by itself.
Here is the procedure:
- You throttle up the engine until it starts pushing you and you start running and pulling the wing with the hangstrap (not carrying the wing foward with your arms). That means that you start running with the engine at around 50% of power and letting the wing rise up and start flying. Remember that you are pulling the wing with the hangstrap and once it is flying you relax your palms and your fingers because you do not have to carry its weight anymore.
- Once the wing has taken its own weight and is flying, you change grip on the uprights and you make sure you are relaxed in the arms, hands and fingers and not holdning tight. If you have a light hold on the uprights then you give the wing the opportunity to rise and tension the hang strap while your hands remain at the correct angle (a bit below chest height).
- You continue accelerating and let the wing take its own weight and even a part of your own weight (let us say around 50% of your weight). As soon as the wing starts carrying some of your weight then you are feeling much lighter and are able to do the "moonwalk". When you do the moonwalk, you feel like you weigh 30-40kg and it feels like you are about to lift. But in reality you will be able to retain that feeling of being light and continue running & accelarating without lifting off the ground.
The more you accelerate, the more you will have to lower the nose of your wing in order to keep yourself from lifting off the ground. If you maintain a balance with the angle of attack while you accelerate (you gradually lower the pitch so that the wing is constantly carrying around 50-60% of your weight throughout the acceleration) then you will be able to run very fast without actually puting any muscle effort into it. You will, in other words, start moonwalking from early on and will continue moonwalking until the wing lifts you at a high speed.
If you lower the pitch too much then you will feel that you are heavy and each step will feel like a heavy thumb on the ground - in that case you allow the nose to rise a bit and return to the moonwalking.
The running is always done with a straight back and the hands on the uprights - not the speedbar. The running will thus be with a straight spine, the chin up and the push of the engine to the hips and a bit above. Not leaning foward and through the uprights like a free-flight take off from a mountain.
Once you are in the air, you have to change from uprights to speedbar, get in the harness and pull the nose down so that you are climbing with extra speed.
What can go wrong?
The technique itself is easy and guarantees good take offs. But a lot of guys make the mistake of pushing out the nose far too early (just as they would have pushed if they were flying from a mountain). In other words it is the instinct/habit that takes over and makes people stall the glider. If you have taken off from a mountain many times then you build a habit and become used to running a short distance, reaching your maximum speed (with muscle power & gravity) and then letting the nose come up and lifting while the mountain drops away.
When you start from flat ground with engine you will have to run a much longer distance and come up to a much higher speed while the acceleration will take a much longer time. These differences causes mountain flyers to think that "this running should be enough" or "I'm already running too fast" or "time to raise the nose" . And then they stall. IGNORE SUCH THOUGHTS and JUST RUN for as long as it takes.
You should not be afraid to run a long distance. Run 100 or 200 or 300 metres, no problem with that. Just run and accelerate and don't let the nose come up. The wing will lift you when it is time to lift you. If you are not happy with something, just spit the mouth gas and abort the take off by making a flair on the ground. You can abort the take off whenever you want.
You have to keep away all the thoughts that will go through your head once your running speed becomes high and continues rising. Just remember that the faster you run, the more normal your take-off will be.
Please refer to swedishaerosport.se/videos.html for the full take-off technique text
