Originally posted by eddiek:
like separating the wheels (weren't they on a cart or gondola??) at just the right speed and alt, lest they bounce up and smack ya in the rump and down you before you get started good........lol. Saw a documentary on the 163 once that showed just such a thing happening......liftoff, 163 rotating up, there go the wheels.....bounce, SMACK! One fluttering 163 on the way back to terra firma, pilot seat left with a permanent pucker mark. 
Yes, the wheels were in a trolley that was detached on takeoff. The intention was to go up to a couple hundred meters and then detach the trolley that should descend in a parachute to the ground. But after 2 parachute failures, the standard way to release was just after takeoff.
In AH it wont never be a problem. Its very simple: you dont want that f*!·!ing damned trolley for nothing else than to take off and there is no ground crew (nor Geschwader Kommodore
) to blame you and make you pay for it when (if) you land the bird. So you can release it at 700feet if you want it to, and let the little F***ing thing smash into the ground.
[edit] I remember reading an interview with one of the pilots of the Me163b, who was telling a very similar story, but with a quite more dramatic end.
On the take off the trolley was released as used ,but this time it bounced and hit the ME163. The engine cut at once,but the plane kept on flying quite well, and it ditched more or less intact. When they went to see if the Pilot was OK...
They found the T-stoff ducting had been cut off by the impact and the corrosive propellant had leaked into the cockpit, MELTING IN LIFE the poor pilot...
Noone will deny something to most LW pilots...they had some big BIG cojones to put themselfs into a bird that they knew could melt them alive.[/edit]
[This message has been edited by RAM (edited 11-30-2000).]
