Bungee RC Launcher

[Stambo]

Been thinking for a while about building a launcher for my AXN and flying wing.
I am not comfortable with launching my plane then putting on the goggles and sitting down.
I watched a few videos on Youtube and kicked around a few ideas until I came up with this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbpOeXl3ZsQ

[Graham Lawrie]

Really cool idea Stambo:)

[pvolcko]

Nice. I like that the bungee ends up going slack so it doesn't drag the model into the ground. I've seen some other setups where there were a lot of near miss ground contacts due to that problem. Have wondered why people don't wrap the bungee under the bottom of the launcher so the cord disengages from the model more or less once it leaves the edge of the launcher. Maybe not enough contact time to get the model up to speed?

[cml001]

Interesting.

[Derek]

Very clever buddy!

[Stambo]

Once these constant strong winds go away I might be able to get out and test it properly.

Paul as far as putting the bungee underneath, I looked at that and it's been done but as you said, it would need to get the plane up to speed in a very short distance.
This would mean a lot of tension and probably require a really strong mounting point on the plane.
Time will tell but this seems to work and it's quite simple so that suits me just fine.

[Stambo]

IT WORKS!!

I finally got to test it on the plane this morning and I have to say, "It's Freakin Awesome".
Only 2 launches before the rain started but I may get to do some more later in the day.
I think my bungee is overkill for the AXN, I read on several forums that you need 5 times the weight of the plane so I hooked up my fishing scale.
The AXN is 600 grams ready to fly, my bungee is set to 3kg pull which seems way too much.
Next lot of tests I will probably drop that back closer to 2kg and see what happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTpREsgCXS8

[Graham Lawrie]

That looked awesome Stambo:) well done:)

[Derek]

Real smooth, Stambo! Nice job!!!