As I think about a 24 meter glider, I wonder how much
span is too much?

At some point, the roll rate of a long span must just
be terrible. And there is added wetted area, right?


There are other disadvantages too (assembly, runway
width, etc.) that have nothing to do with flight in
the air too, I suppose.

I can see how lots of span is fine if you are willing
to add enough water, but 24 meters seems like a LOT
of wing.
Once L/D goes beyond a certain point (40 or 50 or whatever)

it seems like updrafts and downdrafts and penetration
become a much better indicator of performance than

strictly L/D.

The pilots who DON'T buy langer spans but have plenty
of money to do so are buying shorter spans for some
reason.
Is it mostly the ground factors, or is there a pretty
'natural' cutoff? Single seat vs. 2-seat I can understand,
and maybe some extra wing for those pilots who are
a bit
heavier, but 24 meters seems REALLY long to me...

At 21:00 15 April 2005, wrote:
no listing for the following

ASW22-A 24meter
ASW22-A 22meter

Al


Mark J. Boyd