Cross Country Sailplanes: In the Flatland

sisu1a wrote:


http://www.mhoxygen.com/ the EDS O2 system reduces your tank size by
a factor of 3 (http://www.mhoxygen.com/images/Duration-Chart.pdf) for
the same given amount of man hour usage over a standard constant flow
regulator, and a composite tank (carbon or kevlar wrapped aluminum
cylinder) is very light compared to a steel cylinder,

Aluminum cylinders are readily available, and much lower cost than the
composite wrapped cylinders. A 22 cubic foot (626 liters) aluminum
cylinder weighs about 8.5 pounds; the closed equivlaent Kevlar wrapped
cylinder weighs 4 pounds. You pay a lot for the 4.5 pound savings.

I do use and recommend the Mountain High EDS-O2D1 controller (it's not
just the oxygen savings, but the automatic operation and warnings it
provides). My 13 cubic foot aluminum bottle lasts approximately one hour
per 100 psi of bottle pressure when flying in the 14,000-18,000 range at
places like Ely, Parowan, and Minden. Practically speaking, that's about
3 flights off a full (~2000 psi) bottle, and the bottles are cheap
enough to own two, so I always have a full spare ready to go in the trailer.

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

* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* Sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

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