That sounds a bit frightening - 3500 fpm! What are the stresses on the
glider to get that kind of climb rate? How far away is disaster if the
pilot twitches a bit on the controls or hits some wind shear or a thermal?

Hmmm, if they are using weak links, I don't see a problem.

Stress (=force) is related to acceleration, not to speed. You can go
straight up at 1000000 fpm with the same force as at 10 fpm. Just takes
you a bit longer to reach the speed.

-Gerhard
--
Gerhard Wesp / Holderenweg 2 / CH-8134 Adliswil
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