Mark, I could not agree more with your commentary on the decline of full scale soaring. I witnessed some of the early development of the lead sled era. The first sailplane I ever saw was a Sisu 1-A in the process of being built by Len Neime and my brother. The one I sat in that day now hangs in the Smithsonian. You are correct in the wealthy man's toy assesment, however, there is a lot of fun to be had in the sports class. Too many people have passed on that one due to the glamour of the FAI classes. Let's face it, what was hot 25 years ago is something to progress from these days. A new AS-W27b with all the trimmings is upwards of $80,000. The new light weight fun stuff is the future of the sport, though the FAI racers will continue to go faster and farther...
I hope that decline isn't mirrored in RC, though I see some parallels...... Enjoy... Jack Womack --- Mark Drela <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jack Womack writes: > >The fact is that some full scale ships have > >a better L/D or glide ratio when fully > >ballasted. It's a function of the airfoils and > >configurations used. They also have a higher > sinking speed > >in the ballasted condition, and that's why they > have > >dump valves. They are now optimized for fast > cruise, > >with thermaling a secondary consideration. There > have > >been 300 mile tasks flown where the pilot never > >circled in a thermal, and achieved better than > >100 mph in average speed. > > Full-scale sailplanes are fast and heavy because > that's > what the soaring contest rules favor. The mammoth > Eta > sailplane is the logical endpoint of this > development. > http://www.leichtwerk.de/eta/en/project_eta/ > The unfortunate outcome of this development is that > top-level competition soaring seems like a $$$ arms > race, > and this "most advanced" sailplane is a very rich > man's toy. > Perhaps it's not a cooincidence that there has been > a steady decline in full-scale soaring participation > > over the years (according to an article in Soaring > or > Sailplane&Gliding I saw a while back). The Eta is > accessible only to those who have too much money > and too much hangar space. > > Partly in response to this trend, there is a > significant > grass roots movement back towards ultralight gliders > which > give up speed and range for exceptional thermalling > ability. > The 13.5m span, 145 lb Carbon Dragon is one of the > earliest > examples of this. See > http://www.isd.net/sadkins/index.htm > I've seen video footage of Gary Osoba pulling off a > save > from 200 feet in this glider, in an RC glider-type > thermal, > called "microlift" by soaring pilots. > A more recent development is the 15m span, 150 lb > Light Hawk > (about 1/3-1/4 the weight of normal 15m gliders). > See photos and test pilot report at > http://www.glidersport.net/ > > OSTIV is on the verge of sanctioning a new > "Ultralight Sailplane" > category, if they haven't done so already. > http://www.anla.gr/greek/library/ULSailplanes.htm > This class should make competition soaring more > attractive > to a larger number of people. Sorta reminds me of > the RES saga. > > - Mark > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane > News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests > to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that > subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in > text only format with MIME turned off. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day http://shopping.yahoo.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
