New Glider Dream Elon Musk Flow

On Thu, 15 Feb 2018 13:38:45 -0800, ND wrote:

On Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 3:18:37 PM UTC-5, Kiwi User wrote:
On Thu, 15 Feb 2018 05:36:39 -0800, ND wrote:

On Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 6:19:48 PM UTC-5, WB wrote:
On Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 2:01:41 PM UTC-6, Kiwi User
wrote:
On Wed, 14 Feb 2018 11:06:11 -0800, ND wrote:

speaking of cars... this is a little nuts, but, airbags? i've
always thought that during a crash, you probably smack the ****
out of your head.

Airbags shouldn't be necessary provided that your straps are tight
and the anchor points don't pop off the hull, though your chin may
hit your chest quite hard. The stick is be short enough that your
head won't hit it and the shoulder + lap straps will stop your
head hitting the panel



--
Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org

That's assuming a straight ahead impact. A friend was killed when
his glider impacted in a yawed orientating (spin). The side of his
head hit the canopy rail hard enough to kill him. It would have
taken side airbags to have protected him, or a helmet.

side airbags is basically what i was thinking, to protect your head
during a yawing or side impact. like if you were going into a ridge,
caught a wingtip first, and impacted sideways.

I'd have thought that the tip would catch, causing the glider to pivot
round it through almost 90 degrees, putting the fuselage into the ridge
nose-first. Have I got that wrong?


--
Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org

yeah, it's not going to pivot on the wingtip and hit nose first. it IS
going to pivot. but would probably pivot, stall, and begin to fall all
while travelling sideways. the nose may be the first to touch the ground
but i think the major force of the impact would be in a sideways
direction, relative to the pilot.

i think you'll agree that it wouldn't be a horrible thing to have
airbags deploy around the pilots head in this situation (i realize its
not him catching a wingtip) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nsXL72S9OA

I don't think you can tell a lot from that: it looks more like low speed
stall-spin onto the top of a wide spur. I can just about read the ASI,
which looks to be reading in the low 30s and the yaw string also appears
to show low speed judging by the way it first flaps about, followed by a
slip toward the low wing as the spin develops.

In the ridge-running scenario we were talking about the glider should be
flying a lot faster to keep the glider responsive. I don't go near the
hill at less than 55kts in my Libelle. Catching a tip would whip the
glider round pretty fast and, if the slope is covered in scrubby stuff
the tip isn't going to pull free. Of course, if your tip touches smooth
rock, then things are rather different but thats a situation I've never
flown in. My ridge running experience, apart from one flight in a DG-1000
at Omarama, has been under 3000 ft along grass or heather-covered ridges.

In the conditions I think I understand airbags might help, but then
again, they might not. Further, consider that a glider cockpit is a very
small volume to trigger and explosive inflation in, so that could be very
harmful by itself. Think of eardrums getting ruptured.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Amsafe.com

Airbag seatbelts for general aviation and airlines. They already have some pretty innovative solutions. Unlike your car, these don't explode in your face. And, before you ask, there has never been an inadvertent deployment, but they have had some incredible saves - including the notorious airplane thief, the Barefoot Bandit.

I helped write my airline's MEL for our Amsafe seatbelts and the tech is solid. The slow-motion videos are amazing to watch.

Paul A.

On Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 2:49:20 PM UTC-6, John Seaborn (A8) wrote:
I mean if we are going to dream,

- Deployable drone cloud that helps find and center lift. Fun in gaggles!
- A minimum speed of say 20 knots for landing and climb
- Expert system flight computers that anticipate pilot need based on the phase of flight, making real-time display and sensor adjustments and offering guidance.
- Fly by wire controls that integrate loading and maneuvering inputs with flap movements
- Cloud recognition software that does shape analysis using time lapse
- Smart system learning vario that learns the pneumatic inputs of the particular glider it is installed and the day factors in real time so it gets smarter the more you fly, even with a day factor.
- OK not glider but rigging integrated into trailer design
- Something that will mask the height from the Hard Deck analysis software.

Hey A8, A lot of your ideas should be doable with current tech. Cloud recognition software is an intriguing idea and could be done now. The drone wingmen idea is an idea that I have heard kicked around jokingly during hangar flying. More often the conversation is about having a drone wingman to shoot video. Apparently I hang around with a bunch of narcissists .

It would be a huge boon to soaring if we could get our stall speed down to 20 knots without killing our top end. A 20 knot off field landing would sure be a lot less likely to hurt somebody. Heck, on a day with a stiff breeze, one could back into a parking space.

How about LIDAR for identifying thermals at a distance? Lasers and optics are certainly getting small enough to make something like that feasible for a glider. I read somewhere that the sailing guys have LIDAR for reading the wind out ahead. Not sure if that LIDAR is picking up backscatter from sea spray or what. Thermals usually carry some load of particulates (that annoyingly accumulate on our leading edges) that the laser could see. I'd try to make one myself if only I knew my amps from a hole in the ground.

WB

On Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 7:53:55 PM UTC-6, Paul Agnew wrote:
Amsafe.com

Airbag seatbelts for general aviation and airlines. They already have some pretty innovative solutions. Unlike your car, these don't explode in your face. And, before you ask, there has never been an inadvertent deployment, but they have had some incredible saves - including the notorious airplane thief, the Barefoot Bandit.

I helped write my airline's MEL for our Amsafe seatbelts and the tech is solid. The slow-motion videos are amazing to watch.

Paul A.

I'm surprised that airbag seatbelts haven't shown up in cars. Seems they would reduce some of the problems with airbags deploying into one's face. For gliders, maybe an airbag system to protect feet and lower legs. Those safety cockpits are great, but feet and lower legs are still in the crumple zone.

I'm dreaming small.: Non frosting canopy, so I don't have to open the window and freeze my but.

On Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 7:47:41 AM UTC+3, FZ wrote:
I'm dreaming small.: Non frosting canopy, so I don't have to open the window and freeze my but.

A problem with motorcycle visors too. Seems to have been solved relatively recently. Google "pinlock". Maybe something similar would work on glider canopies.

Much larger scale, so maybe you'd want something that went from canopy rail to canopy rail, and with some kind of cell system with ridges for spacing from the canopy every 100m or so.