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  1. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    Don't get me wrong ;) I would go the elecric route for this one too! While I'm still working on my self launching ultralight glider design, it's pretty clear I will lose about 1.5 to 2 points of L/D to having an exposed pod and aft folded prop and an extra 45+ lbs for motor and batterys etc. I'm...
  2. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    I think the really cool part is the turbine weighs very little, and once you burn off the fuel you get very near the weight of an un-powered version of the glider. And with the engine on the back of the pod, there is almost no drag penalty, even without a retraction system. You can't really get...
  3. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    I can only imagine the wing deflection at 5.3g! And I'd love to see any special tricks used to keep all the controls free under loads. I'm guessing that's why the double spoilers.
  4. P

    Human CG position relative to seat

    Plus one to the seat mock-up...But another approach is to set up a pilot in openVSP. you can set the various body types and positions then us the CG tool to slice him up and determine his 3 dimensional CG. The downside is I believe it assumes uniform density which may be off a little.
  5. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    When getting my sailplane rating, most training days involved a tow to 3000 ft. and 2 or 3 tows to pattern altitude. It resulted in about half an hour of flight time in an SGS 2-33 (about half of which was under tow). So even a 30 to 45 minute battery (at climb power) could work for training.
  6. P

    Pros and Cons on Composites vs Aluminum

    I think once you've made some things out of cut, bent, and riveted aluminum, then out of trimmed, jigged, clamped and glued wood, then out of molds, fabric, resin, and foam you start to find the materials you enjoy working with more. Use that one to build your plane. they can all be designed...
  7. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    It seems like they are planning to sell them rather than disclose what they used. That motor/prop/battery combo looks pretty close to my needs and fits my weight budget, but I couldn't find any details.
  8. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    It's a neat way to safeguard the airframe and pilot from fire...but I wonder how low the specific energy density drops (cells inside individual isolation chambers and then contained in two layers more of chambers). I also wonder about how the system deals with all the flexing in the wings...
  9. P

    CAD Model of human body

    This site lets you export as OBJ files that you can read straight into FreeCAD (mesh workbench -import mesh) then just move the placement to where you want. But posing the results would work better in blender.
  10. P

    CAD Model of human body

    And you can export those as to use in CAD programs or Blender as well!
  11. P

    Homebuilt Ballistic Parachute

    I've often thought about where to place and point a BRS on an airframe. It seems to depend so much on the failure mode. Here's an example where being able to choose the direction you toss may have been better that a rocket pointed in some fixed direction.
  12. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    It would allow for a simple, aft-folding prop to use very light springs, or none at all, since gravity won't be working to pull a blade down. Definitely useful! It also works for FES with folding prop lying against fuselage.
  13. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    I don't know its status but i can see pros and cons as I was considering something like this a few years back. Biggest pro is that the mass of the pod can be centered over the pilots shoulders, rather than behind them, as most paramotors are. (PPG pilots will get this) Big con is the high yaw...
  14. P

    Winches, Motorgliders, and Soaring, Oh My!

    I too think a motor-glider is best for those living in the populated part of Southern CA. It needs enough "motor-on" range to get into the mountains or to the buddy's airfield. It needs to fly through more controlled airspace, and over congested areas, and so on. Overall it would have more...
  15. P

    What do you think about "e-soaring"?

    I think as more people just build clean efficient aircraft with electric power, and go fly them for fun, the discussion can shift from "Electric aircraft won't really work" to "Is this one electric?" I know back when I switched from gas garden tools to electric ones, my life got simpler and it...
  16. P

    Winches, Motorgliders, and Soaring, Oh My!

    Sounds like you've beat the "should be as good as a 1-26" threshold!
  17. P

    Winches, Motorgliders, and Soaring, Oh My!

    I'm looking forward to seeing your new direction!
  18. P

    Winches, Motorgliders, and Soaring, Oh My!

    I love the analogy to a day sailer. The ability to do solo ops on all those light lift days makes a light self-launcher a pretty useful toy, and for a much longer flying season. I think about this stuff all the time since that's the mission of my design...if we take average speed and distance...
  19. P

    Wing design questions and advice

    My interpretation was always that the CL with simple plain flaps shown in appendix 2 were acceptable and there to be used...other devices not included in the appendix were OK but requires TSC approval. I have more heartburn over the wording of "relatively square...not noticeably swept or...
  20. P

    Winches, Motorgliders, and Soaring, Oh My!

    For me, I'd accept the single engine unreliability for self-launch and treat it like a tow rope that may break at any time. (May break and send shrapnel through my airframe is a different consideration!) With electric I'm looking at just under 4lb/ft2 (with me onboard) and 3.6 lb/ft2 if I...
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