Stemme S12 in Michigan this Saturday, May 20th (KOZW) @ 4 pm

On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 5:11:11 PM UTC-4, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 1:26:01 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Maybe I'll get the boys to bring the Ionia Arcus over to the Howell airport and see how it taxis. No question that the ArcusM is a phenomenal sailplane.

Thanks Dave.

The only issue for these big birds is availability of wide taxiways.
I am lucky that from the hangar to a runway I have probably 150-200 feet
wide path. I have a wing tip wheel so all of my wing needs to be on the
taxi way. Some airports don't have taxiways wide enough for a 21 m
ship like mine. So there is always a reason to put on the 18 m tips.
Arcus has a wing wheel a few feet inboard from the wing tip and that
will probably solve the narrow taxiway problem. The wankel will also
easily cruise to a destination at low power settings with no heating
up issues at all. You don't need full power for cruise. You would
exceed speed limit for the airframe if you tried to maintain a
level flight with full power.

All true. Antares at 20m gives me less than 1" extra space to edge of
taxiway (standard USA size) so requires some care, but tailwheel-in-rudder
and heavy tail weight gives precise steering so this is doable.
Arcus with inboard wing-wheel or Antares at 18m make this less critical.

Stemme has a different issue: it can get "rocking" (in roll) and hit a tip.
I know this has happened more than once (on grass fields) - damage results.

Always trade-offs!

See ya, Dave