Good observation.

Take my Nimbus 2C glider for example. The flying weight, less water
ballast, is about 1000 pounds. The Lift over Drag is 47:1 at 51 knots. (At
1440 pounds with water ballast, the L/D rises to 49:1 at 59 knots)

Divide 1000 by 47 and get 21.3 pounds of thrust needed for 51 Knot level
flight. Your weedwhacker engine would easily do that.

Gliders with small "sustainer" engines are widely available from Europe.
They call them "turbo" gliders as opposed to the "self launcher" gliders
with bigger engines. The engine can be retracted into the fuselage behind
the wing. If needed, the engine can be extended and air started with just
airflow through the tiny prop.

However, with 49:1 glide ratio, if well flown, you won't NEED the little
engine.

Bill Daniels


"BllFs6" wrote in message
...
Hi all...

Was reading about a glider the other day....

It has something like a sink rate of 125 feet per minute at a 400 pound
total
wieght when its going about 35 mph...

Now given that 1foot pound/sec = .00182 HP and the glider is being powered
by
gravity....

125 * 400 / 60 = 833

833 * 0.00182 = 1.5

So, are those calcs right and it would only take 1.5 horsepower to keep
that
glider going in level flight at 35 mph?

If thats the case..it makes me wanna get a glider, a weed wacker with a
prop on
it and do some CHEAP, long, slow flights

take care

Blll