Awwww... C'mon, Renny. Let me do it! I'll bring it back in one
piece... Mostly... I think...

Dan Marotta

On 11/1/2014 6:03 PM, wrote:
Well, I do believe my LAK-17B FES could take off at Moriarty under its own power, especially on a cool morning, but I will not use it for take-off for several reasons including:

1. On page 2-7 of the Flight Manual it says:
"LAK-17B FES is sailplane with Front Electric Sustainer system and is prohibited from taking off solely by the means of its own power."

2. There are 3 towplanes at Sundance Aviation at Moriarty and I do believe it is critically important to try to support one's local soaring FBO (and our local tow pilots like Dan)!

3. At full charge I can run the FES for approximately one hour. That should get me theoretically 60 miles late in the day. Even if I could self-launch, I do want to save every "volt" in case I need to self-retrieve.

Finally, that video of the self-launching LAK-17B FES is actually my ship and it was taken in Lithuania just prior to it being shipped to the US in late 2011, so we know that it can be done, but for the reasons above, I have chosen not to....and there you have it!

Thanks - Renny

On Saturday, November 1, 2014 5:30:20 PM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
I don't see why it wouldn't work at
Moriarty. There's no degradation in performance other than that
pesky true airspeed thing (prop and wings) and we have 7,000' x
75' to do your acceleration plus plenty of wind to help with IAS.
I keep trying to convince Renny to do it but, so far, he's
demurred.
Dan Marotta
On 11/1/2014 11:27 AM, Eric Greenwell wrote:


Dan
Marotta wrote, On 11/1/2014 9:30 AM:


Have you seen the video of the LAK-17b FES
self-launching? Just keep


the tail wheel on the ground.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0288vzCSHI




Dan Marotta




On 10/31/2014 11:26 PM, Eric Greenwell wrote:


Ramy wrote, On 10/31/2014 8:06 PM:


The one with the motor has one more
option if he doesn't want to give


up too early, assuming he is near an airport he can also
land and


relight if he is too low to start the engine.





Not an option in the "sustainer" context of this thread,
unless there


is a tow plane there.






Would it work at the airports in the Moriarty area in the
afternoon on a contest day? :^( Probably not!




But true, in some situations, self-launching would be an option,
and some motorglider pilots do operate that way, even when they
aren't in a contest.