On Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 1:40:34 AM UTC-4, Sierra Whiskey wrote:
And it is embarrassing to think that my records and attempts in a pure glider will be overtake by someone that carried a landout field in their back pocket.

Again, "a land out field in their back pocket" is exactly NOT what a motorglider has. I am (very) new to the game, but it is more and more apparent that when it comes to pushing harder into a dicey situation the motor glider has no advantage. I was flying my "real" glider this spring, wave sink conspired with the silly season and put me in a squeaker of a final glide. As I dropped the gear over the threshold to land, it was abundantly clear that had I been in my turbo duo, there would have been no opportunity to deploy and start. In a marginal final glide, the last thing you are going to do is extend a huge dive brake on the hopes that it will start. Even if all goes well, there is a significant loss of height for a start. So this perception that the motor is a land out field in your back pocket is a bad and very dangerous notion.

Having no intention of low starts, I realized there is another issue that is not immediately clear even for "high" starts. If you think the day has died, you are in gliding range of an airport (say a fat glide of 25 to one in a high-performance motor glider) but it is farther from home. You would be tempted to try to start, cut the corner so to speak, and head home. After all you are in "easy glide" of an airport. But you need to plan for getting the engine out, having the motor not start, and now can't put it away. Your fat glide is now gone. So to be safe, you need to have a fat "engine up, and not turning" glide to safety. This is where the FES will shine, or perhaps to a lesser degree, a jet sustainer.

No one is saying there is no advantage to a motor glider, but again, the advantage is BEFORE or AFTER the flight performance. If the argument is the improved state of mine from the ease of stress, that can be mitigated by a chase crew for much less money, and I assume no one would argue for a record category with our without chase crew.

If you hold to the the idea that you have a landout field in your back pocket, it may well get you killed...

RR