Death of the 13.5m class?

On 12/25/2017 9:37 PM, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Monday, December 25, 2017 at 8:15:18 PM UTC-8, Eric Greenwell wrote:
wrote on 12/24/2017 6:39 PM:
If this is "soaring," then no external power or induced thrust should be allowed. Start the engine, turn a prop (or turbine, or compressed air jet, or stick an oar out the window or whatever) and you are now a powered aircraft. In competition, the flight STOPS THERE. (Just like the OLC.) No exceptions. If you elect to augment your flight to make it home when getting too low for comfort and do not want to accept a landout, too bad. The scoresheet should reflect that you decided to terminate soaring flight at that point.

Also remember that virtually ALL external power sources (Reciprocating engine, Turbine or Electric CAN fail. And the insidious "Emergency Algorithm" dictates that it will most probably fail at the absolutely WORST time, i.e., too low over bad terrain when you have not previously selected an appropriate landing area and planned how to get in to it safely.

An auxiliary power source is a neat thing to have. Just remember that it is NOT a "Safety" device. It is best if you just treat it as a way to avoid inconvenience. Betting on it to save your sorry butt in a competition (or on any flight) is just asking for trouble.
What about a glider with a rescue parachute? If the motor failed to operate, and
there was no safe place to land, the pilot could use the rescue parachute. The
risk of, say, an electric motor failing to start, AND being over a place where a
landing would harm the pilot, AND the rescue parachute failing is much smaller
than all the other safety risks of flying in a contest. In that case, a pilot with
a motor gives up some weak weather performance to gain more area to fly in,
looking for that elusive thermal. Even if the scoring ends with the motor
starting, having a motor can change how the soaring is done.


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Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf
What about a glider with an ejection seat. When your electric glider fails to start and you have no landing options you can eject. No parachute allowed however on the ejection seat...

A wing suit, maybe?Â* Then you could get an extra 10 feet or so of added
distance.
--
Dan, 5J

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