At 12:54 PM 5/04/02 +1000, you wrote:
>Hello Mike,
>
>Don't know if you recall but we swapped bytes a while back about
>"ultralight" gliders. Just
>read the article in the latest AG.
Pete,
Fortunately I no longer read what passes for our gliding magazine.
Thought it was fairly interesting but
>I must say I'm surprised
>that they are focusing on empty weight rather than AUW.
If this is from the FAI/IGC I'm not surprised. Trust them to miss the
relevant issue. Like the UN only the most stupid and incompetent people in
each Nation's political system are shunted off to the International body.
. Also they don't
>seem to be able
>to seperate the issue of airworthiness from competition. I would have
>thought that the thing
>to do would be to create a single broad airworthiness category say max
>AUW 300kg, max
>wing loading say 35kg/sqm (Gee were did I pinch those numbers from I
>wonder?) And a
>simplified Jar-22 rule set.
The whole Airworthiness thing is in my opinion utterly stupid. It is really
just a non tariff barrier to protect the German glider industry. I've no
quarrel with JAR22 as an engineering standard, I just don't believe
regulating sporting equipment is a proper function of National Civil
Aviation bodies. The Americans have it right. Most private gliders
there(including certified factory builts) are in Experimental
Exhibition/Air Racing which means you can fly them as long as they have an
annual inspection and the correct placarding. The FAA doesn't vouch for
their structural integrity or handing and there are no weight limits.
I'm not a fan of what in the end are arbitrary weight limits. How much
better an aircraft would the two seat Jabiru have been if it had not been
saddled with the 430KG AUW limit?
>
>Then within that airworthiness frame work create a couple of categories
>for competition/
>records. Something like...
>
> AUW-kg / WL-kg per sqm.
> Microlight 160/15
> Ultralight 220/25
> Lightweight 300/35
Given the fight to even get 15m Class records I don't like your chances here.
>
>Any thoughts on this or movement happening in OZ?
Given we now have 5 international contest categories do we need more is a
fair question I think. Particularly as the PW5 Class has failed to take off
here?
Is your lightweight category based on the Russia AC5M by any chance?
Regards
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
ABN 75532924542
Box 7474 Toowoomba M.C.
Queensland 4352
Australia
Tel 0746 355 784
mob 0428 355 784
0429 355 784
fax 0746 358 796
International
phone: int'l+ 61 7 46 355 784
Cellphone:int'l +61 4 28 355 784
int'l +61 4 29 355 784
fax : int'l+ 61 7 46 358 796
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
website:www.ozemail.com.au/~mborgelt
--
* You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list.
* To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message
* or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
