2G wrote on 12/12/2020 12:31 PM:
On Friday, December 11, 2020 at 8:17:42 PM UTC-8, wrote:
I actually helped put one of those three into a hangar last weekend. I'm friends with the IA who just inspected it and an acquaintance of one of the owners who flies it. I've seen it fly twice and he seems to have a good bit of fun with it.
Here is a review of the Silent 2:
https://www.aviationconsumer.com/ind...ctric-gliders/
My take on it is you can self-launch and do one low save. If you want to self-retrieve you will need to get an aerotow to maintain a fully charged battery. Even then, retrieve distance is quoted as cruising at level flight w/o a headwind. If you have to climb to clear a mountain range, for example, you will exhaust your batteries and may not even clear the range. This happened to one pilot at Ely last summer. Faced with that dilemma, he used his battery capacity to search for a suitable landing field. He was fortunate and got a weak cell phone signal to send his situation to fellow pilots back at Ely. They left the airport in the dark and returned at about 2 am.
Other considerations a
1. Is the launching altitude specified at max gross weight (the GP15 is not)? If not, what is the launch altitude at the weight you will be flying it? Will you fly with water ballast?
2. How high do you typically launch to where you fly?
3. Do you have hills or mountains that you will have to clear on a self retrieve?
4. Do you even care about self retrieving?
5. The battery safety at this time has a big question mark (I consider it unproven and will not fly one).
6. How are you going to recharge the battery on field (you will need a dedicated 20A circuit). Most remove the batteries and take them to a suitable circuit at the hangar or motel or home.
Tom
The review was very limited, with no remarks from users of the Silent Electro. That's
important, because the reviewer would have learned that Silent owners rarely end up 100 miles
from home, needing a retrieve. Shucks, that rarely (once every 5 years?) happens to me, and I
fly an ASH 26E. The Electro's lower performance means the pilot turns around not as far from
home, and ends up needing to retrieve only 50 miles out while Al is 100 miles out. And, since
the pilot knows how much retrieve distance he has, he can makes his decisions accordingly.
Again, any pilot considering one should definitely talk to owners that fly them a lot. Jeff
Banks is the Electro pilot I know who has had a lot of good flights in the Parowan/Richfield
area, and usually self launching. Take a look at his OLC logbook for the 2020 season:
https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3....t=olc&pi=10497
Tom's remarks are more useful than the review, I think, and point out that where you fly could
make a big difference in the amount of motor duration you will need. Nevada and Utah are going
to be much more demanding than Kansas and Florida, for example.
One point from Tom's remarks I disagree with: Jeff did not use a dedicated 20A circuit to
charge his batteries while he was at RIchfield, but just a standard 15A socket in the lounge of
the FBO.
--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation" h
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1