On Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 8:43:10 PM UTC-4, Skypilot wrote:
I find all this stuff sexy, in Australia we all live in a bit of a
fantasy of energy, we export our LPG, Coal and Oil like it’s going
out of fashion and the “green” movements of our parties
ensure that subsidies and grants are available to clubs and
organisations for being green. My home club of Kingaroy would be a
perfect site to go for a huge grant for four elec whinches 2xmain and 2x
retrieve. The runway area is 2000m x100m of grass right next to a
bitumen runway, there is power available within 200m of both winch
sites. The only problem is the fact that it’s a certified runway
with probably 1-2 private movements per hour, so the local Shire council
are unlikely to approve winching. It’s a pity as there is a coal
mine 20km away and there is a planned coal mine next to the airstrip and
we have elections soon. If there was ever a time to pitch an alternative
to burning smelly dinosaur bones and reducing the noise foot print for
our solar powered sport now is it

I guess the panacea is to have an electric winch next to a battery bank
powered by solar panels. In Australia this is feesable given the space
and sunshine, BUT here is the crux - it’s battery technology.

The future will have elec self launch gliders, elec tow planes, elec
winches and all of this will be powered by a battery system that is dual
use. The batteries will be in runway edges, house bricks and other
structural items not just a battery.

You will wake up in your house that is a storage facility hooked to the
grid, most of the time you will be a next exporter of energy.

Jump in your electric car and drive up to the field.

Unplug your elec self launch Libelle and plug your car in, your hangar
will have a storage battery bank in the wall bricks.

Tow your glider out to the runway with your elec golf cart and launch
into the wild blue yonder with your retractable self launch system with
prop goverening.

Once airborne you will go find a big fat thermal and redeploy your self
launch prop mast and reverse the prop to recharge your batteries thereby
extending your range.

The next type of comps will be range comps that will allow much greater
distances and speeds, perhaps one day we will see solar panels on wings
that can feed power to the battery system built into the composite
fibres.

Fly until sunset and head to the clubhouse for a beer.

I just don’t understand why so many on here are negative to people
trying to improve things, because let’s face it if we don’t
improve things our sport is dead.

Justin
--
Skypilot

Amen to that, Justin! You hit the nail squarely on the head!

Uli
'AS'