The majesty of big wings

[Go Smoke]

Seeing as there are a few gliding topics flying around at the top of the list at the moment I thought I might add another!

The following link shows a homemade (rough round the edges) video produced by some of the junior gliding movement about three years ago. (some of those pilots are now European champions and, possibly, future world champions)

It was made for the joy of doing it in exuberance and youth but perfectly captures the joy and wonder of flying gliders.

It caused a lot of interest, so much so that they made a more professional video the following year (available on DVD still I think)

I hope it gives a little insight to those who have not tried soaring flight yet.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~socr0037/animation/UKsmokin.wmv

[Confabulous]

Very nice - makes me want to strap one on and go!

How do thet fly so fast & low with no engine? Ridge lift?

[Andy_R]

Fantastic - gliders doing run and breaks - amazing :cool:

[Nimbus265]

I love my big wings!!! :D . Actually pushed it to 140kts this weekend......... WoW :)

[QDMQDMQDM]

Wow. Now that's what I call momentum.

Out of interest, at what height in a high performance glider can you turn back, make a circuit and land off a failed launch?

QDM

[Nimbus265]

QDM

The scenario is slightly different for gliders, but the procedure is the same regadless of whether they are high performance or not. I assume you are talking about a winch launch failure....

The last thing that should be conducted before any launch, is to establish the Eventualities... ie what if... One of these will be what to do in the event of a launch failure or cable break.

The most critical phase of a cable launch is the first 1/3 when the aircraft will be relatively low to the ground, but could be orientated at an angle of about 45 degrees nose up. If a cable breaks the aircraft will stall, and will loose height very rapidly (and may spin/collide with the ground) IF the correct recovery action is not taken.

Consequently the first action following a cable break/launch failure, will be to regain the correct approach speed for the conditions by a controlled lowering of the nose by pushing the stick forward. Once the glider has reached the approach speed, you can then access the situtaion and decide on your landing options. Options could range from land straight ahead, if you are low and there is sufficiant room infront to a modified circuit if reasonably high (and all other options in between, that all winch launced glider pilots are trained on before going solo).

If this wasn't the thrust of your question, then a few other performance figures may assit: My glider has a maximum glide of 49:1; most modern gliders are in the region of 35:1 - 45:1. What that means in practice, in still air is that for every 1000' of height I can glide for about 49000' (14km) at max L/D (49kts for my Nimbus). I work on an optimistic factor of about 45Km from about 3000'.

From a competition style finish at MAUW of 580Kg/full water at say 120kts, I can climb from say 50' to circuit height (700-800') before reducing speed to near the stall.

I had a launch faliure at about 80 feet on Saturday, with a novice in the front. Not a good height, as the glider has just about established fully in the climb, and you are VERY low. Suffice to say, that I landed straight ahead, and less than halfway down the airfield (kept me on my toes though!!)


Dunno if this helps....

[shortstripper]

Cable breaks are relatively easy as you know what's happened. Winch failures (loss of power) can be far more deceiving! :E

SS

[QDMQDMQDM]

Thanks, Nimbus, v interesting. You have a lot more scope than we do if the donkey goes on strike just after take-off.

I really had no idea that you could build up the kind of momentum you do. You really are slippery! (As the bishop said to the actress.)

QDM

[Stedders]

QDM,

There's two things that come in to play here - firstly at the heights these guys are coming in at ground effect has a large part to play. You can fly that close to the ground with very little loss in airspeed for some time. Secondly, as you say they are very slippery. Speed to height conversions on a high performance glider can give you a lot of height. Certainly easily enough to do a 180 final turn and land.

Stedders

[Ultralights]

Link no workie :( :( :{

[Go Smoke]

Link is dead.
I have the file downloaded to my computer so, if anybody wants it i can e-mail it to them.
File size is about 8.2MB

GS

Actually, just found another link for it - see below:


LINK (http://users.ox.ac.uk/~socr0037/UKsmokin.wmv)

Maybe best to right click on the link and then save to computer.

GS

[robin]

If you look at the personal videos site - these are great

http://depechy.free.fr/from_videos.html