At 19:35 07 January 2016, wrote:
Jets may be more thirsty than 2 stroke sustainers but the
extra power and
s=
peed makes the additional fuel cost pale into insignificance
- even more
so=
when you think of it a a proportion of the capital and
running costs of a
=
new glider.

Electric will obviously evntually win out but battery
technology is
advanci=
ng only slowly compared to other technologies and the
capital costs remain
=
expensive. I don't know the cost of FES batteries but I
reckon I could
bu=
y around 8000 litres of jet fuel for the cost of a set of
Antares
batteries=
- maybe more. I used about 100 litres last summer
including a lot of
test=
ing rather than retrieve use.

( But I do rather fancy the GP14E Velo!)

Well either you are buying really expensive Jet fuel or you
know a source of really cheap Antares batteries; I'd say you
might buy 20,000+ litres of Jet fuel.