WW,
My first solo flight was in an old ‘all metal’ glider.
The glider was owned by one of the shopkeepers in the village where I lived, and because of costs etc, we used to attach the tug rope to the back of a really old 4×4 Landrover, which would drive as fast as it could towards the edge of the hill- just fast enough to get the glider airborne, and then at the last moment, the land rover would turn to the left and away from the edge.
The glider would be airborne by now, just , but not much higher than the land rover and it regularly took a bit of a stomach churning dip as it left the hill and we jettisoned the tug rope!
Even though it was now lower than the take off point, it was around 14-1500 feet high over the valley and when it reached the village, it was flying at about 2000 feet ?
Elf n safety – what’s that?