Fly-by-wire and gliders

I've been intrigued by the no horizontal stab idea for that reason. A clever fellow implemented a simple control system on a model sailplane and was able to achieve this. He explains the design problem really well too. Here's the page for those interested.
http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articl...lke_asfwpp.htm

I wonder what performance hits there may be while thermalling? This is a problem that the Genesis I/II faces.

I'd love to try it on a model glider, but not on full-scale. Too easy to imagine what happens if the angle of attack sensor vane fails... aka the X-31 crash and so on...

On Saturday, November 1, 2014 7:17:12 AM UTC-4, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
FBW is the only reasonable way to get rid of the tail surfaces. That's easily 20% of the total drag and an easy 10% of the weight. All in all, I would think a 35-50% increase in performance is possible, once one can deal with the huge issues of implementing a FBW.