MIT UAV soaring technique

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog...6103/?p1=Blogs

Reminds me of the Dean who was trying to convince a wealthy alumni to
contribute. The Alum said he wouldn't, because everything the school
did was impractical. The Dean, in an effort to prove they focused hard
on practicality, handed the Alum a doctoral thesis entitled
"Increasing Egg Production". The Alum opened it, read the first
sentence, and declared that it proved his point precisely. The first
sentence read: "First, assume a spherical chicken".

-John

On Dec 6, 7:56*am, jcarlyle wrote:
Reminds me of the Dean who was trying to convince a wealthy alumni to
contribute. The Alum said he wouldn't, because everything the school
did was impractical. The Dean, in an effort to prove they focused hard
on practicality, handed the Alum a doctoral thesis entitled
"Increasing Egg Production". The Alum opened it, read the first
sentence, and declared that it proved his point precisely. The first
sentence read: *"First, assume a spherical chicken".

-John

Finally! Some scientific justification for my thermal centering
technique. It is called the WFOOIA algorithm, an acronym for "Whoops!
Flew Out Of It Again". Other pilots may freely use this techniques as
long as the author(s) are properly credited... As it is open source,
pilots may also improve upon the technique, provided they share it
with the community.

Matt (Jr.)

On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:40:53 -0800, bildan wrote:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog...6103/?p1=Blogs

I smell a certain lack of preliminary research: any RC glider pilot will
tell you that pressure sensing TE varios for models have been available
for a long time. It would seem to be a lot easier and less power-hungry
to sample one of these than to calculate climb rate from GPS output.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Dec 6, 12:13*pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:40:53 -0800, bildan wrote:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog...6103/?p1=Blogs

I smell a certain lack of preliminary research: any RC glider pilot will
tell you that pressure sensing TE varios for models have been available
for a long time. It would seem to be a lot easier and less power-hungry
to sample one of these than to calculate climb rate from GPS output.

--
martin@ * | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org * * * |

Whether this blogger has a good understanding of thermalling technique
or not, it's interesting that UAV makers (Presumably for the military)
have an interest in UAV's that automatically find and use thermals.
It makes sense they should be interested. Maybe thermal finding
instrumentation will come out of it.

Autonomous Soaring has been around for awhile.

Take a look at:

http://soaring.goosetechnologies.com/

Cheers,

Andrew

It looks to me like someone in the study confused the little thermal strength indicator cones of the graphic with individual thermals.

On Dec 6, 2:40*pm, shkdriver
wrote:
Anyone have any experience/thoughts to share about winch launching a
shempp-hirth SHK? My example has CG tost hook on gear leg.

Thanks,
Scott W.

--
shkdriver

Read the pilot handbook?

OCSA did a few auto tows off a dry lake with an SHK a few years
ago...climbs like a homesick angel!

LT/HU

On Dec 6, 4:40*pm, shkdriver
wrote:
Anyone have any experience/thoughts to share about winch launching a
shempp-hirth SHK? My example has CG tost hook on gear leg.

Thanks,
Scott W.

--
shkdriver

Should not be a problem. Keep in mind that when the SHK was designed,
winch-launching was the primary take-off method in Germany. Even some
of the earlier glass ships like the ASW-15a did have only a CG-hook
while the aero-tow hook was an option.