At 22:03 05 April 2015, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Somehow this turned into a FES thread, not what I had intended. I would
li=
ke comments from those with curent generation pop up factory installed
sust=
ainers. I noticed the POH's do not have performance information other
than=
Standard conditions. Say if you have a solo 2350 what is the ceiling of
cl=
imb ability? What are actual achieved results? Do you find you get less
s=
oaring as you have to stop looking for lift at a much higher altitude,
and
=
yo have a high minimum wing loading. Are you happy with the sustainer or
d=
o you wish you had gotten a pure glider? What are the downsides, the
upsid=
es. Have you experienced a failure to extend or to start, any idea what
is=
the glider ration with engine extended. Do you prefer the two blades
of
=
Schleicher designs or the five blades of Schempp-Hirth, anyone flow a JS
wi=
th jet? Does the sustainer make your flights safer as the possibility of
a=
land is reduced. Has anyone suffered a failure resulting in damage? I
am=
looking for as much information as the readers are willing to share. As
f=
or FES, we can start another thread but for this discussion I am
interested=
in factory installed sustainers. Thank you all very much for your time
an=
d input.


A couple of further points. I don't think I have ever climbed above about
4500 amsl,and never noticed any fall off in climb. Our engine was retro
fitted to a glider already made to take an engine, but not fitted when new.
The engine takes 25 seconds to erect, so away from home I use 1500 above
ground as the height to get the engine out, but quite happily start it from
a 1000 winch launch. My partner in another glider has a Ventus 2t which
only takes 15 seconds to erect, but occasionally pops the circuit breaker.
I suspect on later engines they reduced the gearing to reduce amps, our
circuit breaker has never popped.
We always ensure that the carbs are filled before flying, but our engine
rarely starts cleanly, it seems to fire on one cylinder for 5/10 secs
before developing full power.
Dave