Jabberwok I have just read a book by Brown including his Rubber Deck landings and (apart from once when he came in too low and the hook caught on the edge of the Deck) he found that landing was easier, as flexibility of deck pushed a/c towards centreline. I believe that due to space limitations the arrestor cables for the land based test installation were shorter tahn standard. To recover the a/c the front of the deck was lowered and the Vampire slid onto a trolley. Although not required during trials the deck could the emptied and prepared for further landings faster than a normal Carrier setup.
Back to the original topic I believe that trials were made for landing DFS 230 gliders using rocket deceleration for Otto Skorzeny's rescue of Mussolini, although I do not believe they were used in the actual operation.