Grunau

Many pilots have heard of the Grunau Baby an early German glider design - well Grunau is actually in Poland and is a hilltop satellite field for Jelenia Gora. It was used in the 20's and 30's to bungee launch gliders off the top of the hill (by the Germans - look up Sudetenland for the History of the area) . Now it is used to teach pilots how to land on uphill slopes.

Jerzy and I took a couple of flight each in the Puchacz today to practice landing up the hill at Grunau.

The picture below shows the hill - Grunau - from the towplane. The area in the purple box is the landing area, and then you roll uphill to stop on the realtive flat near the hangar (to the left of the purple box).



This was my first landing, and it turned out OK.


Ready for take-off. You can see the downhill slope to the left of the glider, this is where we landed. The towplane is a Polish radial-engined PZL-101 that I am told is a close copy of the Russian YAK-12.

The take-off is exciting too, as you start up the upslope on one side of the hill the towplane disappears for a few seconds as it crests the hill until the glider also crests the hill.