John.Roo's Project Phoebe thread, and several other low-cost soaring threads on HBA, have been sniffing around the daunting concept of designing affordable sport soaring, basic, club class gliders, self-launchers, and training gliders... far below the prices of existing factory built European soaring and self-launchers.
Well, leave it to an unemployed po-boy that happens to be a soaring addict, to be the loudest whiner of them all about the high cost and infrastructure problems of soaring. But, your friendly neighborhood whining po-boy has a potentially interesting dea that might be a clever life-hack for this issue.
Considering my current net worth, I'll resurrect a previous nom de plume that I used many years ago, The Great L. Cheapo. Some of you might remember the little cartoon hobo that was on the box label of the classic Wanderer R/C glider model. That's the guy I had in mind
With that, I submit to the soaring enthusaists on HBA the following idea and challenge, appropriately named Project Cheap-o-Soarus. The general concept is to explore the viability of an aftermarket add-on wing and tail modification that can be added to the Airbike, Legal Eagle, Texas Parasol, and other simple cheap ultralight/LSA "floater" style aircraft to enable them to truly soar in realistic light lift conditions.
I am not talking about the Xenos or Moni or other sportplanes that were re-badged as motorgliders with an extra two feet of wingspan, and need a relatively large and powerful thermal. I'm talking about some kind of a new long wing kit/plan that allows an EXISTING typical lightweight 28-50-HP UL/LSA to be able to climb in light lift. Obviously this aircraft will not have the straight line gliding performance of a "Real" glider... even a Ka-8 or 1-26.
What I'm getting at here is that there are reasonable numbers of these type ultralights around now, that can be had at a low price. These aircraft already have:
Engine and Fuel system
2/3 of a usable fuselage
2/3 of a usable tail section
Pilot Seat and restraint
Control System
Landing Gear
So an aircraft that is real-world light-lift soarable may not need to start with a clean sheet. A lot of the components and building bocks may be right in front of us on Barnstormers and Craigslist. A newly designed soaring wing (and struts, and appropriately enlarged or lengthened tail) adapted to the existing ultralight could save a lot of build time, materials cost, and engineering time.
Starting with something draggy like an Airbike style ultralight is definitely not ideal, but to quote the late Dave Peverett of Foghat, in their classic "Boogie Motel".... "May be sleazy. But it's cheap and it's easy..."
So HBA soaring enthusiasts, what's your version of a Cheap-o-Soarus soaring wing upgrade for an existing low-cost UL/LSA style aircraft?
Well, leave it to an unemployed po-boy that happens to be a soaring addict, to be the loudest whiner of them all about the high cost and infrastructure problems of soaring. But, your friendly neighborhood whining po-boy has a potentially interesting dea that might be a clever life-hack for this issue.
Considering my current net worth, I'll resurrect a previous nom de plume that I used many years ago, The Great L. Cheapo. Some of you might remember the little cartoon hobo that was on the box label of the classic Wanderer R/C glider model. That's the guy I had in mind
With that, I submit to the soaring enthusaists on HBA the following idea and challenge, appropriately named Project Cheap-o-Soarus. The general concept is to explore the viability of an aftermarket add-on wing and tail modification that can be added to the Airbike, Legal Eagle, Texas Parasol, and other simple cheap ultralight/LSA "floater" style aircraft to enable them to truly soar in realistic light lift conditions.
I am not talking about the Xenos or Moni or other sportplanes that were re-badged as motorgliders with an extra two feet of wingspan, and need a relatively large and powerful thermal. I'm talking about some kind of a new long wing kit/plan that allows an EXISTING typical lightweight 28-50-HP UL/LSA to be able to climb in light lift. Obviously this aircraft will not have the straight line gliding performance of a "Real" glider... even a Ka-8 or 1-26.
What I'm getting at here is that there are reasonable numbers of these type ultralights around now, that can be had at a low price. These aircraft already have:
Engine and Fuel system
2/3 of a usable fuselage
2/3 of a usable tail section
Pilot Seat and restraint
Control System
Landing Gear
So an aircraft that is real-world light-lift soarable may not need to start with a clean sheet. A lot of the components and building bocks may be right in front of us on Barnstormers and Craigslist. A newly designed soaring wing (and struts, and appropriately enlarged or lengthened tail) adapted to the existing ultralight could save a lot of build time, materials cost, and engineering time.
Starting with something draggy like an Airbike style ultralight is definitely not ideal, but to quote the late Dave Peverett of Foghat, in their classic "Boogie Motel".... "May be sleazy. But it's cheap and it's easy..."
So HBA soaring enthusiasts, what's your version of a Cheap-o-Soarus soaring wing upgrade for an existing low-cost UL/LSA style aircraft?
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