Gliding is as close as you can get to real flying. In the simplest case flying is the process whereby a wing generates lift to support a craft that is heaver than air. In order to stay airborne the wing needs some way to move forward through the air. In the case of a glider that force is provided by gravity. Due to the fact that the atmosphere has many sources of rising air it is possible to remain airborne for long periods and cover distances of hundreds of kilometers.
it's a PW-6. Designed at the Warsaw Institute of Technology. They run a programme allowing senior students to go through the entire design process for a new glider. Predecessor of this glider is the PW-5; a single seat World Class Glider
Thought I recognized the 'strip, I haven't flown from BGC fro twenty years or so, I see you're still using the winch although it looks to be a newer one. Keep up the spirit gang!
Totally agree. I've got a tiny little Lipo battery for my RC plane and it can put out 70Amps at nearly 12 volts, that's 777 watts!! Amazing seeing as it only weighs about 150grams
Nice video, thanks. What a brilliant two-seat training a/c! When I first flew the single seat version, it rocketed skywards in a UK thermal- which freaked me out. It was much smaller than my usual hang-glider platform! Can't understand the anti-aerobatic lobby? I am very lucky to fly a Pilatus B4- I usually start aerobatics at 2000' from a winch launch. It's just great fun!
The best idea is an electric powered glider in my view. The modern lithium polymer battery has still got a got plenty of room for considerable improvement. An electric motor brush-less motor is incredibly efficient, compared to almost anything else. If you want to get some idea of how far the technology has come, you only have to look at the sate of play with electric powered models. A search on electric flight (or sunseeker flight ) will give some idea as to the potential.
I agree but if you want to just get a short glide then you could go without it but if your looking for some real experience (10+ hours) then you should go for it and if you find good thermals you could go for 10 hours without a electric flight easy time.
Isn't the PW-5 a very beautiful plane? A guy has one at my club and when he took it for "a spin" (no pun intended) we couldn't stop looking. Everyone wanted to run the wing :-)
" the camera got heavy ".......it must have been afraid and was trying to get off your lap and under the seat........ I liked seeing the instruments....I've read the winch can get you 0-60mph in 3 sec.....that's as fast as a 700 hp Hellcat at the dragstrip...and it sure picked up speed fast going down after the loop.......how long a strip do you need to land?
I have put a sailplane ride on my bucket list and plan to go soon. I've ridden in a Cessna 172 a lot but I'm looking forward to the great visibility from being on the nose of the aircraft with no wings above or below to obstruct the view and the relative quite of the ride and I hope to experience a thermal and what its like to rise without an engine - can you actually feel yourself rising or do you only know that from the altimeter ? The glider has a much better glide ratio than a Cessna - so I suppose a person used to that must feel a bit uneasy about being so far away from the landing strip without an engine - it must seem like there is no way to make it back ....at least until you get used to gliders.
I'm going to guess at some numbers since I've never been in a sailplane - so you are gliding along at say 50 mph and your rate of descent / climb is say 200 feet per minute descent you come to a thermal and your rate of descent / climb changes from losing 200 feet per minute to gaining 300 feet per minute What happens to your airspeed? You were gliding down at 50 mph Does it slow to 45 mph because you are being lifted up and not going forward as fast?
Current batteries are waaaay too large and heavy to efficiently use in something that is designed to be light like a glider. Electric engines have their place in small servos and such, but won't be practical for airplanes for a while
Question. Wasn't that too low for a loop and a spin? In my club (and I think this is a requirement in Canada) we have to *RECOVER* by 2000 ft and there's a minimum altitude for aerobatics.
does anyone think that a prop powered by a hydraulic motor in the front is a good idea? and using a small Wankel motor in the back as a pump? i know it would be back heavy though...
gliders (mostly) use thermals for lift, not wind. except wave and ridge flying, but that needs mountains. they are constantly descending, so they need to be in a body of air that is rising as fast or faster than their sink rate. or tied to a power plane. 😉
well, if he doesn't have a low level aerobatics endorsement which allows you to recover below 3000' then CASA will have a big problem with this video I think!
Depends on wind, glider type and lenght of the runway. The launch height is usually about one third of the cable lenght with no wind, but we already managed to get up to 550m with a 900 m long cable and strong wind, so it really depends.
The worlds second ugliest glider only beaten by the PW5. For beauty look at a Nimbus 4 , ASW19 or K6E. They all fly though and I wouldnt turn any of them down
That is the back of my head you have been looking at. It is not what you wear but how you wear it. In Australia you need something with a brim to deal with the sun. A beany doesn't work in the conditions we usually fly in.
