Yes, your right. If I take the time and think about it a little more, I see
what is happening.
Lightly loaded large wing areas can generate enough lift at low airspeed to
climb rather quickly. With a headwind, there would be no reason to even
reel in the line and with enough "kiting" lift from winds, the line can be
un-spooled from the reel until its weight and/or drag overcome the planes
abilities.
Contemporary designs with higher loadings, stronger wings and less area and
LESS HIGH SPEED DRAG can take advantage of high line tension. The stretch
of the line stores energy that can be instantaneously transferred to the
glider, which accellerates (with its low drag) and then pulls up into a
vertical climb trading the speed for altitude. No line stretch -- no zoom
gain.
This is an educated guess, so all you readers feel welcome to critique the
above.
Dan deVries
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>Don't know about rules, but with contempoarary glider performance a "zoom"
>>launch technique can give far more altitude gain. I have tried "kiting"
>>some of my Unlimited class gliders and get very little gain unless
>>prevailing winds are in the 25 + mph range at the ground.
><snip>
>
>The amount of altitude gained in a zoom depends on the model. My Sailaire
>will gain almost as much altitude in the zoom as I lost in line reeled in
>to gain air speed for the zoom. :-) It has been my experience that the
>maximum altitude can be obtained by towing my Sailaire as slow as possible.
> To that end, I use a Protow capture tow hook to avoid popoffs. Also, a
>lot of the older designs do not have strong enough wings for zooms.
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