Unmanned Gliders Seek Lift

bumper wrote:
"kirk.stant" wrote in message
...

BTW, I bet if you had a transponder, the UAV would be programmed to
avoid you like the plague!

Oh boy, a whole new game! Hunt down the soaring UAV and "bump" it out of the
thermal (g).

Good idea: get a PCAS unit like the Zaon MRX and use it to find UAVs,
grab it's thermal while it leaves to find the next one! In fact, a UAV
could be considered a remote thermal sensing instrument.

How about carrying small one folded up in the glider? When the soaring
gets tough, you launch it to help you find thermals. It could carry a
Spot so you could find it later it was unable to return home on it's
own. The glider could be carried in a tube under the wing or on top of
the fuselage, or inside the fuselage with doors like a motor glider.

Or ... Forget the transponder: just have Spot send text messages to your
cell phone, so you know where the UAV is. FLARM is another way the UAVs
could be avoided, and eventually they will all use ADS-B.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* Updated! "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* New Jan '08 - sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org