On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 10:15:10 AM UTC-4, Dave Walsh wrote:
(Also posted on u.r.a.s.)
Any owners care to contribute? I don't own one but would be
interested in knowing which models/engines are capable of
climbing to self retrieve from the far side of a 9,000ft Alpine
pass; so a climb from 6000' to 10,000'?
Range and reliability comments also welcomed.
Dave Walsh

That would be a very interesting test article for a large club to do; compare jet to electro (FES and conventional mast) to internal combustion (sustainer and self launch if available). Start at the same altitude, start at the same time, use 1 sec log files to determine rate of climb (including engine deployment if applicable). We only have a single sustainer at my club (17b FES) so we can't do this one (we also don't have mountains). A second test from lower altitude (say 1000 msl to 4000 msl) would be interesting.

If you do the flight at the same time, you'd get a relative result - no need to reduce to ICAO Std Atmosphere, though with correct data gathering you could do that.

Do Akafliegs in Germany test this sort of thing, or are they only doing relative performance testing?