Electric powered glider at Inch Beach, Ireland. 

Yes, but if you still have some juice left in the packs you can throttle up when in the glide and descending if you need some extra energy to make it safely to your landing strip.

15seconds at full power then 12mins max power?

Heck yea.

Equip that wings with solar panels and it can now fly indefinitely - in a sunny morning that is.

You've got firm grasp for the obvious.

Did you ever get one?

Tim Purvis but still better to "learn" to fly in a old timer than this. I learn to fly in ASK-21.

"Rolling resistance"!

cole moore

bill torres

learn learn learn

​@@HangTimeDeluxe lmao atleast my moms still above ground ya salty sounding geriatric

20k? Is that all ? Are you sure?

I think this glider starts at about $120k

I guess you've seen few.

Tinchote Maybe not enough. But I've always been impressed with the short take off roll. This one struck me as long, by a lot.

I cannot tell on my own, of course, but maybe you have mostly seen light trainers. In any case, the length depends on the power of the engine, be it on the tow plane or the glider. I've seen some sketchy tow planes and very long ground runs, especially with ballasted open class gliders.

Tinchote I've seen marginal tow planes, but a glider achieves ground effect at quite low speeds. This has a motor. Ground effect appeared to be late. Maybe the motor/battery is heavier than I thought.

How about the sand factor........

Most ballast is actually water ballast which is jettisoned prior to landing. Some gliders have the capacity to take on fixed extra weight but normally this is to compensate for smaller pilots.

@@newforestroadwarrior Still his point is correct. The existence of ballasts show that designing a glider is not a constant fight against weight, contrary to what intuition tells us. So a couple of tens of kg more is mangeable.

@@haltux Sorry but you don't understand what ballast is for.

Most pilots will calculate this in, and when you're going cross country it;s not that uncommon for a glider pilot to land in a farmer fields or other nearby landing strips

Show me affordable new glider.... :D No... its going to be something between 100-200k

He meant to say 2kwh :-) he was talking about the battery capacity not the motor..

20kW continuous, 22kW max output

You can afford it if you want it enough

Alexandru Nistoroiu by chance... ;-)

While stationary, someone has to hold the wing tip off the ground (3:01). Once the aircraft starts moving forward, there's just enough airspeed for the control surfaces on the wing (flaperons) to create enough lift that the pilot can maintain them level throughout the takeoff phase. Pause the video at 3:08 to see the flaperons moving up on the left wing and moving down on the right wing at the same time.

@@_John_P interesting, thank you

Too much

Sadly, not me.

The record for an un-powered sailplane is over 1000 miles.

The sound is only for a few minutes during launch, for the most part

If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.

@@HangTimeDeluxe questions are the heart of understanding....methinks age has addled yer brain

No need as gliders have air brakes deployed after touchdown.

Aye, but this is Ireland. As long as you're not a moron, it's all good.

Yes

Well - you need some kind of power to get airborne - either a tow plane or a winch (or in special cases bungee ropes). This makes the plane more independent. The battery capacity is only 12 minutes here - so in effect for any extended flights this is still a glider. An added benefit for self launching is that if forced/decided to land out, the motor gives you more options to select the most safe landing place.

@@daviddou1408 Wow sounds cool. Never heard about that - but not much different to bungee to downhill - so why not. Any case thanks for the info.

any standard runway is long enough

@@hettingr Yeh, standard international airport runway.

You are looking at 50-70,000$ (usd) That's a large number, but you can probably find a club around and they might have one. As a first glider we would not reccommend getting a motor glider. It is less hassle and more common to find a average sailplane for cheaper and it is very cheap to get towed or launched into the air

it's just for taking off

compare a glide ratio of paramotor at about 4-6 to one while the high-performance sailplane is upwards of 60+ to one.

@@carrollhanks1055 shorter takeoff, smaller storage space, no help needed on takeoff, ...

they said 12 minutes. I guess that’s plenty for 3 or 4 launches. The sky did not look ready for much soaring thermal activity yet.

It’d still say so. It only has power for about 30 min max. It’s not really meant for powered flight. Doesn’t even have a real engine but rather an electric motor. Once you get to cruise altitude, you cut the power. It’s great so you don’t need it to be towed. That motor comes in handy in case of an emergency if happen to get low and need that bit of extra power

solar panels in this case are not efficients, pls eXcuse my eng

where

It's around 41:1 but for touring- the batteries don't last very long!

no it's just available when you need it, like launches.

no, semantical stage its not_______pls excuse my english.

Who said life was fair?

Most people flying gliders in a club, there's no need to own a glider.

They rent or share ownership.

Gliding is one of the most accesible forms of flying and can be achieved on a minimal budget. I started around 4 years ago and have had a share in an aircraft with 2 others for 18 months. Our secondhand aircraft was £8,000 (Think Ford Fiesta rather than Ferrari) between 3 of us so a quite minimal outlay. It costs me just under £10 launch fee and if i'm lucky may stay up for 1,2,3,4,5 hours dependent on conditions. You don't need a sustainer whether petrol or electric to glide. My annual fixed costs (club membership, aircraft storage, aircraft insurance, aircraft inspection, parachute repack) are £750 per year. Allow a £1000 per year for any fettling and that amounts to £20 a week + launch fee. Compared to football season tickets, golf club or gym membership its a bargain! The great thing with gliders is they don't depreciate like cars, our glider will almost certainly be worth what we paid in 5 years time. Its cheaper than a night at the pub!

If the glider is owned by a club then it is not necessarily an issue. The additional cost is quickly compensated by the lack of requirement for a tow plane.

Motoglider if you want ,)

It's a glider, the same way that sailboats have an engine and still are sailboats.

Well put Tinchote I will use that when people say "Why is it called a powered paraGLIDER?" "It's a glider, the same way that sailboats can have an engine and still are sailboats."

Because it functions and performs as a glider once the engine is cut off.

What do you mean? And btw most people from Ireland probably won't like your pfp. A Motor glider is the same as a non powered glider. A non powered glider uses a planes (Cub or other powered craft) perpultion does it not? It only uses it for a brief moment to launch himself into the air without this other power from another Airplane

@@m.s.aviation7065 so lets call an A380 a glider then.

@@cplcabs An A380 isn't capable of sustained soaring while a motor glider is. Like an unpowered glider.

@@PabloGonzalez-hv3td semantics. If it has a motor on it, then it is not a glider. Would you call the U2 a glider?

@@cplcabs It's not semantics when you lose all engines in an A380 and MUST declare an emergency. A U2 has glider-like characteristics but not quite a glider.

Can't make a run to the grocery store or go on a road trip.

Depends. In the UK, self sustainers can be flown with a regular glider license. If they can take off, then you need a NPPL or a PPL. I might be wrong though.

@@StefanoBorini In the USA, if you have your glider license, all you need to fly a powered or motor-glider is an instructor endorsement and sign off for your log book. Some motor gliders can fly extended ranges under power, and one advantage in the USA is that there is no recurring medical required to fly a motor-glider, unlike normal powered general aviation aircraft life a piston Cessna

An TMG is an Touring motor glider, an sailplane with self takeoff has an engine only to take off or gain altitude when you have no thermals, an substainer only has an engine to prevent an outlanding, and an pure glider has no engine

An self-launching electric glider is already cheaper than a traditionnal glider if you consider the cost of launches during its full lifetime. By far.

I was holding my breath waiting for liftoff! ;]