Hi Mart,
First let me say that Tim Shirley's response to your email should give you
about 99% of the background, and as Tim says "size does matter", for reasons
that I discuss below. I do not know for how long you have been gliding, but
I have been "doing it" for a while! Most of what follows does not bear
directly on your question,
but you may find it useful information in coming to grips with, and
understanding the "bigger picture".
What you must firstly understand is that nearly all development today is
driven by what is happening on the competition front. One notable exception
is the Perlan Project.
I posit the following 3 subjects are where most of the advances have been
made:
1. Our understanding of the aerodynamics within the "usual" gliding envelope
in which gliders operate, has increased immensely. Research on the
aerodynamics of a wing section (as always, carried out by dedicated
enthusiasts), has led to a huge performance increase, in a relatively short
period of time.
A state of the art glider design of "today " is certainly of substantially
better aerodynamic design than one that is say 15 years old. It is highly
likely that it better than one that was designed 5 years ago.
******************
Here I am talking about the design only - as opposed to design and
production. Some
designs may be absolutely revolutionary, but for one reason or another the
glider itself may never gets into real serial production - think Diana 1, (5
or 6 produced), and
maybe (more so) Diana 2.
If I heard Todd Clark (the Australian Agent for the
JS1), rightly, last year at Dalby he said that the estimated manhours to
get the JS1 Revelation
into production was 75,000 hours! {Todd please confirm!} All these, and the
actual set up and production costs have to be met before a single glider
rolls off the line!
So we have a design phase, and a production phase. If the actual elapsed
time (as opposed
to manhours), from design to production can be minimized, then the company
doing this best will have an advantage over its competitors.
********************
2. There has been a significant advance (over a relatively short period of
time), in the development of instrumentation that allows the pilot to know
(in real time), what is happening in the airmass he is flying in, and what
to
do about it. Someone like Mike Borgelt might like to make comment here, and
gaze into the crystal ball!
3. Finally we come to the glider itself. I will not discuss here the
advances in material technology that have contributed to make the modern
glider what it is today, other than to mention an intriguing solution by our
pioneers on how to cut down the drag produced by an open cockpit. This
solution involved the fabrication of a laminated WOODEN canopy. The canopy
was quite streamlined, but as you can imagine it had one drawback. Yes you
guessed: It was impossible to see either in or out! The solution to this was
to cut small portholes in "strategic" locations!
The point I want to make here, is that it is only in relatively recent times
that the sailplane designers have begun to give really serious consideration
to fact that their splendid machines have to carry flesh and blood
creatures - the pilots. So this is the 3rd area of major advance. Pilots can
now fly their (relatively highly crashworthy), ships in comfort for 5, 10,
15 and more hours at a time.
Pilots come in all shapes and sizes. As Tim has pointed out he fits very
comfortably in an "A" sized fuselage. I, on the other hand do not. Like Tim,
I too own a Discus. My Discus however has the "B" fuselage. Do I feel
disadvantaged? Not in the slightest. I can assure you that being physically
comfortable is of extreme importance, especially when flying in a demanding
situation. If you are not comfortable you will be distracted by this lack of
comfort. If you are distracted, even slightly, your decision making is
adversely affected, and it is the decisions made by the pilot (at maybe one
per second in a stressful situation), that determines the final outcome of
an event, MUCH more so than a fraction (or more), of a L/D point. As Ingo
Renner has said in the past, "the person who makes the fewest errors wins".
If you have been following the OZ team blog from Uvalde, you may now
understand what Tom Claffey is on about, when he mentions his bad back, and
the search for the right seating position. Tom, I hope you now have this
sorted out. Good luck to you and the rest of the team.
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mart Bosman" <m...@mca.nu>
To: <aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2011 5:30 PM
Subject: [Aus-soaring] 'A' model gliders
Hi all,
I have a question that might have been asked before but I haven't found
it.
How come that there are no minimum cockpit sizes for gliders?
I am following the euros and again the gliders with a small cockpit that
apparently have about half a point better glide are leading. For
yesterday the first 8 are an 'a' model. (or standard small)
To me it looks unfair that your statue gives you a competition advantage.
Thanks,
Mart.
http://egc2011.pociunai.lt/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=132
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
