Just read the article. To some extent, I find myself agreeing (did I
write that? pass the Risperdal!). However, just because Gordy and I
succumb to tempatation when we have an electric glider* that is getting
low, doesn't mean other people do. If you have the strength of will to
ignore that nice power switch after the first climb is over, you can
ignore what he said. But I'll admit that when there's a motor in the
glider I usually won't fight out the last 50 or maybe even 100 feet. And
I definitely will with an unpowered glider. So there go all those fun
saves. (I was told that on a 58 minute flight (or was it the 60 minute
flight??) I was down to 20 feet at 3 minutes. I thought it was 40, but
that's another story. Low enough with a 25 year old 2 meter. (hmm... is
this the Gordy bragging disease too?)
We have a bunch of people flying electric gliders in our club. Some of
them even come home with vinyl/brass/particle board plaques sometimes.
Some of them have houses in structural overload from hanging the plaques
on the wall. However, we also have a guy who is trying to start an
electric event which involves old hlg's and vertical climbs. He very
seldom talks about the power off part of the flight. This guy has
acquired my old Chrysalis. It's very amusing to watch him launch, but it
ain't soaring. He can get lots of exciting vertical drag racing because
the flights don't last long. The model is, I think, two or three ounces
overweight, which is a lot on a Chrysalis.
Anyway, Gordy mentions an automatic motor shutoff. I think this will
emphasize motor power even more, because now you have to be going Mach
0.5 at motor shutoff so you can get another 1000 feet or so. Therefore
it needs to link in to activate flaps or spoilers for 5 seconds or
something. (Perhaps activate spoilers for first 30 seconds of flight
above 500 feet? Total energy probe?) Once these little details are
worked out, I don't see why Gordy shouldn't then advocate using a
similar system with a releasable towhook on winch launches. That'll make
Histarter happy too. (for those of you who don't know my last reference,
your ignorance is bliss)
*Sailplanes are for people with bigger egos than mine. Gliders can go up
to, including, sometimes, 40 size power trainers that happen to be dead
stick.
Gordy wrote:
Or you could have posted me directly to discuss it such a fun topic :-)
Its been quite a while since I wrote that article which is more a review of
the programmable altitude priority motor cut off switch....but I play this
game :-)
The context of the article is replacing winch launches..
snip
One more time because I know that motor heads who have found a sailplane
will fit motors will want to go off on how what they do is good (and it IS by
the way) but that has nothing to do with the context of the article...replacing
winch launches with electric motor launches.
So with a programmable altitude shut off switch, TD pilots could have the
smallest and cheapest possible motor/prop/gearbox/controller/ battery, versus
electric sailplane events where the motor package is priority.
snip
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