Motorgliders (long)

To be equal to a non-powered glider in a non-powered glider event, the
entire flight, from tow to landing must be unpowered. Any other scenario
is not equal. For that reason, if the engine is run during any time
between the start of takeoff roll and the time the glider touches the ground,
it should be disqualified as a glider flight. Zero points.
Simple rule. Takes care of the inequalities. Everybody makes the same
land/no land/where to fly decisions.
Such a rule would not prohibit retrieving the glider by self launching.
Dennis


In article ,
(Tom Seim) wrote:
(JJ Sinclair) wrote in message
...
Well, now Tom. The rules state, and I quote, "All tows will be by aerotow"
Ephrata did NOT have a waiver to this rule. Now was I correct is insisting
that
the rules were followed, or not? BTW, that rule applies to all alasses, not
just open. Sports class and the management of the contest was in violation of
the SSA rules. If we don't follow the rules, all we have is a local fun fest.

I entered that contest ONLY after being assured that I could
self-launch. If the contest organizers were not following the rules
that was not my fault. That said I will ensure in the future that they
have applied for the appropriate waiver of the rule. I did not fly in
your class and did not have an opinion concerning your insistance that
the rule be followed. I think the Eric has adequately addressed the
concerns you have about self launching.


I will agree with you on one point, though. I think this may come down to
everybody getting a G.D. MOTOR or nobody having a G.D. MOTOR. Isn't that
where
we were when the motorgliders wanted to be included in SSA regionals and
nationals? You had your own Motorglider Class, why didn't you just stay there
and leave the rest of us alone?

Simple: Region 8 did not have a motor glider class; I flew in Sports
(I could have also flown in 15M, but there advantage of dumpable
ballast was too much of an advantage).
Also, I thought that you flew in Open class, did I miss something?

"dennis brown" wrote in message
et...
To be equal to a non-powered glider in a non-powered glider event, the
entire flight, from tow to landing must be unpowered. Any other scenario
is not equal. For that reason, if the engine is run during any time
between the start of takeoff roll and the time the glider touches the
ground,
it should be disqualified as a glider flight. Zero points.
Simple rule. Takes care of the inequalities. Everybody makes the same
land/no land/where to fly decisions.
Such a rule would not prohibit retrieving the glider by self launching.
Dennis


I think most would agree there are many off field landing sites suitable for
a glider with light wing loading that would be unsuitable for a heavier
glider. And that the non-powered glider will doubtless dump his ballast
prior to any outlanding. The MG can't do that and so incurs a much higher
risk of damage in less than optimum conditions. Not fair!

So unless you *require* the non-powered glider to keep his water ballast
throughout the entire flight, including landing, your rule isn't equal. Of
course the non-powered glider should get zero points if he dumps ballast at
any time prior to landing.

--
bumper
"Dare to be different . . . circle in sink."
to reply, the last half is right to left









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In article ,
says...
To be equal to a non-powered glider in a non-powered glider event, the
entire flight, from tow to landing must be unpowered. Any other scenario
is not equal. For that reason, if the engine is run during any time
between the start of takeoff roll and the time the glider touches the ground,
it should be disqualified as a glider flight. Zero points.
Simple rule. Takes care of the inequalities. Everybody makes the same
land/no land/where to fly decisions.

In fact, everyone doesn't make the same decisions, even if they are
all flying unpowered gliders. A pilot with a good crew and a light
weight glider will be much more inclined to accept the possibility of
a field landing than a pilot with no crew and heavy glider will not.
For example, JJ flew his large and very heavy ASH 25 in our regional,
and his co-pilot was handicapped. Do you really think he made the same
decisions about where to land as he would've when flying his Genesis?

One of the things we try to achieve with our contest rules is
participation in soaring. So, will a rule like this increase or
decrease participation? Our experience at Ephrata is it will likely
decrease participation, as most motorglider pilots, faced these
choices:

1) landing out to maximize their contest points
2) landing at airport to ease the retrieve but giving up many points

will decide not to enter the contest at all, and the rule won't
attract enough unpowered glider pilots to make up the loss. This year
there were 5 self-launchers in the contest. One that normally enters
was instead in the Return to Kitty Hawk race, and another dropped out
at the last moment when he hurt his back. And there are more coming to
the area, so it's a substantial number of gliders for our regional
contest. Most of these are long time glider pilots doing a lot of good
for our region. One of them was the contest manager, for example.
--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)