Which sustainer system would you chose for your sailplane?

Does your Pegase have a circular cross section at the nose? Contact FES
at http://www.front-electric-sustainer.com/
and ask them if your glider is a good candidate.


On 1/6/2016 10:46 AM, wrote:
If I could get someone to retrofit my 30 year old Pegase101A with the FES sustainer, I would do it tomorrow

Since that is not available I will play PowerBall tonight and order a new one over the weekend.

But seriously - will FES have a presence at the convention in Feb? - someday I will have a sailplane with FES.

WH1

--
Dan, 5J

circular nose is no longer required...as the FES Discus and Ventus show. The FES Controller will align the nosecone with the rest of the fuselage after shutdown.

Pegase are basically the same fuselage as a ASW20 - just French - and 20's are on their list.

I did ask, but there is no one in the US doing the retro fit - I was hoping to look at FES more at the convention. I would even consider buying a ASW20 or ASW27 in Europe and shipping it back - but I do not know the process.

If it were available as a retro fit I bet there would be a long line. For people like myself that want to do XC and want to do some contests, I believe FES is a game changer. (I know the romance about landing out.....) The increased drag/weight may keep me off a podium, but that is not my total interest as my skill level.

WH1

On Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 2:33:25 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Pegase are basically the same fuselage as a ASW20 - just French - and 20's are on their list.

I did ask, but there is no one in the US doing the retro fit - I was hoping to look at FES more at the convention. I would even consider buying a ASW20 or ASW27 in Europe and shipping it back - but I do not know the process.

If it were available as a retro fit I bet there would be a long line. For people like myself that want to do XC and want to do some contests, I believe FES is a game changer. (I know the romance about landing out.....) The increased drag/weight may keep me off a podium, but that is not my total interest as my skill level.

WH1

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that you will ever see FES units installed as a retrofit on various glider models. There are many reasons for this including: regulatory issues, legal issues, cost, design issues, market potential, installation complexity, etc, etc, etc. I am sure Luka could explain these various issues in more detail should he wish, but due to these reasons and others, the focus of LZ Design has been to offer the FES as an option on new gliders. Now, it all first began with the LAK-17A, that Luka Znidarsic used as the initial test bed and proof of concept glider. He then actually retrofitted a few LAK-17As that were shipped to his facility for the installations.

It was then offered as an option on the new LAK-17B and the Silent 2. As many of you know, in the past year, the FES is now offered by Schempp-Hirth on the Ventus 2cxa and the Discus 2c. It will also be offered on the new Ventus. HPH is also offering the FES on the Shark 304eS.

Finally, I hate to be a pessimist on this "retrofit" idea for other models, but I am doubtful that this will ever become a reality (except for perhaps some additional LAK-17As). Now, that being said, we all know things can change (just like the weather) and one should "never say never," but this is basically where we are today.... Thx - Renny

That's too bad Renny - I am sure you know allot more about it than I do

But it would be so good and even if it was fairly expensive - I bet the market would be there. There are so many really odd looking light aircraft flying that look like there were built in a garage using hammers and a few nails........ to bad you can't just take a ASW20 and call in home built and just promise not to crash in the middle of a town - a guy can dream LOL

I know that at our club and talking to pilots progressing thru Solo to XC - the primary hurdle is landing is a place that is not an airport. and it seems these days that rather than being a way to meet new farmer friends, Land outs are just trespassing.

I have not experience the Sustainer vs self launch as much of a hurdle. That (in my limited discussions) usually has more to do with convenience - most pilots are fine getting towed or shot of a winch. But getting between airports, where you are selecting fields as the only option............ that spooks many.

For simplicity, reliability and (lower hour) pilot acceptance - FES is the future (I think)

Saving for my Discus FES

WH1

A few years back I asked FES about shipping a kit to the US to be
installed locally in my LAK-17a. The response I got was that, to
maintain quality, they would not provide kits. They would, however,
travel to the US at my expense and perform the installation for me. The
cost at the time was $28,000 and, if I could find 4 other gliders, they
would offer me a discount.

I haven't compared that price to the price difference on a new glider
with and without a FES but I would guess that it was in line with buying
a new glider. Travel, shipping, and lodging costs are considerable for
the duration of the installation.

On 1/6/2016 2:33 PM, wrote:
Pegase are basically the same fuselage as a ASW20 - just French - and 20's are on their list.

I did ask, but there is no one in the US doing the retro fit - I was hoping to look at FES more at the convention. I would even consider buying a ASW20 or ASW27 in Europe and shipping it back - but I do not know the process.

If it were available as a retro fit I bet there would be a long line. For people like myself that want to do XC and want to do some contests, I believe FES is a game changer. (I know the romance about landing out.....) The increased drag/weight may keep me off a podium, but that is not my total interest as my skill level.

WH1

--
Dan, 5J

Now that is interesting. bhanson..at..roitech.com - maybe we can chat off rec.soaring

All the FES gliders I have seen are 100k+ - you could get a nice ASW20 or even a ASW27 add 25k and still be within reach.

You would not end up with a glider that gets you to the Worlds or the top of a podium - but it would get you home and not in the middle of a field in the dark LOL

WH1

Approximate prices as of spring 2015...

D2c 18m - 68k Euro
D2cT 18m - 85k Euro
D2c FES 18m - 93k Euro

All plus VAT.
All plus loads of "Options"

By the time you've added a trailer & sensible instrument fit you're looking
at around 150k Euro inc VAT, so difference between "traditional" turbo &
FES is less than the variation in exchange rates from week to week (Or day
to day at the moment!)

KN

At 16:44 07 January 2016, Dan Marotta wrote:

I haven't compared that price to the price difference on a new glider
with and without a FES but I would guess that it was in line with buying
a new glider. Travel, shipping, and lodging costs are considerable for
the duration of the installation.

When is a hybrid coming? FES plus a 10hp generator would be the ideal combination.

On Friday, January 8, 2016 at 3:53:32 PM UTC+3, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
When is a hybrid coming? FES plus a 10hp generator would be the ideal combination.

Solar cells.

It shouldn't be long before it's economic to embed solar cells under a thin smooth transparent layer (would gelcoat do?) of the entire upper surface of the wing.

At current efficiencies, a single seater with 10 sq m of wing will get about 2 hp, not 10, but that will still help as it'll be working almost all the time.