Motorgliders and gliders in US contests

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 01:27:50 +0000, Dave Nadler "YO" wrote:

Are you aware that an air-restart of the motorglider was out of the
question because of the extreme cold ? It was only for launch
convenience. Should give you additional appreciation for what Ohlmann
has accomplished.

Best Regards, Dave

Yes I was aware of that. His achievements are impressive.

I gather some of his flights ended with a landing at an away airfield. The
motor allowed him to fly back to base the following day.

I know of a number of other pilots who have used motorgliders while
stretching the envelope of achievement in our sport. The late Klaus
Holighaus flew a series of large distance tasks (typically over 1200km) in
the middle 1990's from Gariep Dam in South Africa. Many of the
unsuccessful tasks covered the declared distance but they were completed
by climbing under motor power to final glide hight at sunset and then
gliding back to base after dark.

Which brings me back to my point. Competitive open class gliders need to
have motors, but gliders flying in the 'standard class' should not be
permitted to have them.


Ian