Uncle Fuzzies take on Self Launchers

On 23/08/2013 14:21, Chris Nicholas wrote:
Tthere has been at least one fire incident in the UK of a
self-launcher. See
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...n0nzOv7VfjGwM?

There are also reports of 2 fires on the ground, in Australia. I

There was also a Stemme in Australia which crashed disastrously after a
fire developed in the air.

GC



have no more details. There have been no fires yet of battery-driven
motors in gliders (AFAIK), but that does not mean there won’t be.
Mine has thermal sensors in the battery packs (and motor) so I hope
(a) it won’t happen and (b) if it does I have time to get out, but
only time will tell. The glider in the picture above did not give
warning sufficient if any at all, to the pilot of the fire. He was
lucky that it happened when approaching to land.

I am very happy with my FES (self sustainer, not launcher). The
decision height for using the motor can be much lower (no added drag
if it does not fire up), the workload is minimal, the response is a
matter of 3 seconds or less if it works (and if not, as said above,
plan A is to land safely and only plan B is to use the motor if it
works),.

IMHO, a better solution for hassle-free preparation and avoiding
outlandings, in spite of the limited range with present batteries.

Chris N