Hi Pigboat.
You're spot on, the helicopter wasn't tethered. I've been trying to find some info on it but could only bring to mind the film of the event I remember seeing from some time back. Still can't find anything in writing but certainly fancy getting hold of Hanna Reitsch's auto-biography.
Re Hanna Reitsch flying the Reichenberg prototypes. It did have a landing skid fitted and she landed the aircraft. Although this was still a very tricky procedure as you'd be carrying out a dead stick landing on an aircraft which is not endowed with good gliding capabilities! Reports seem to indicate that the launch was also fraught with danger as it was carried out from under the wing of an He111, never from a ground launch ramp. The Reichenberg had a tendancy to pitch up on launch and could strike its tail on the launch aircraft. Reitsch experienced one of these occurences. She also had an incident when sand ballast fitted to the aircraft in lieu of the warhead broke free and Reitsch managed to crash-land the aircraft. Apparently German press reports of the time stated that this incident had resulted in Reitsch suffering serious injuries but this was not actually so. She had in fact been injured in an accident flying the Me163B Komet. There were four models of the Reichenberg. The Reichenberg 1 with landing skid and flaps but no pulse jet. Reichenberg II, which had a second cockpit in place of the warhead, and no pulse jet. RIII, with landing skid,flaps, and a single seat cockpit. This variant had the Argus As014 engine fitted. The operational version, the Reichenberg IV which was basically a powered V1 with a single seat cockpit, rudimentary instruments, no flaps and no landing skid.
Spiney