Average OLC flown distance by glider

or less experienced rich ones....

Still that would imply a correlation between income and that glider, which is among the main focuses of GliderReview.

Once again: solving the problem of TONS of, say, PW-5 being flown in Namibia is good for academia and thought experiments, but GliderReview is meant to cope with pragmatical retrieval of information about a bunch of market-relevant gliders.

Perhaps you can show price per LD point?

Roel,

Perhaps you can show price per LD point?

That idea was proposed by my friend Stefano Cherchi a few weeks ago.
I am considering it since that day. We'll see!

Thank you for your comment though, it is definitely inspiring.

--
Jacopo

On Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 9:06:53 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Perhaps you can show price per LD point?

i don't think thats a relevant metric. how often do we really fly at best L/D speed? best L/D is somewhat irrelevant. If all they were focused on was raw L/D, I'm sure they could make gliders with extraodinary L/D's, but they are trying to optimize the performance over a wide range of speeds.

On Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 12:02:06 AM UTC+3, ND wrote:
On Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at 9:06:53 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Perhaps you can show price per LD point?

i don't think thats a relevant metric. how often do we really fly at best L/D speed? best L/D is somewhat irrelevant. If all they were focused on was raw L/D, I'm sure they could make gliders with extraodinary L/D's, but they are trying to optimize the performance over a wide range of speeds.

Don't forget the ASW12 had a 46:1 L/D in 1965!

But those guys running around in Australia at the moment and averaging up to 160 km/h (85+ knots) on task are obviously not doing a lot of flying at their 50 - 60 knot best L/D speed.

Jacopo,

Long ago (in the '70s) when the handicapping movement started (thanks Carl Herold) One of the metrics that was used was the -6kt sink speed. That is, at what airspeed did the polar have a 6KT sinkrate. If you look at the change in the polars over the last 40 years (I've been doing it a looong time, you'll see less of a best L/D change and a much greater speed where the -6 occurs. The polar's shape has been "flattening". Small tweeks in drag at the high end produce great results, while not affecting the best L/D much.. As most XC pilots know, it's the high-speed L/D that makes the difference.