jld wrote on 8/19/2020 3:01 AM:
Certification requirements have forced manufacturers to significantly increase the weight of their gliders (e.g. cockpit protection). Because more recent airfoils are tolerant to higher WL, this has not been a significant issue, except for the fact MTM goes up and self launchers need more power!
By using experimental in US and UL in EU, GP has more design freedom. For example, not proposing a heavy 16G cockpit but a rescue parachute instead!

Do you know how much the "16G cockpit" adds in weight, compared to the cockpit
requirement of a glider with a rescue parachute? Or asking another way: is a
glider designed to the "16G cockpit" standard heavier than one designed with a
rescue parachute (and including the parachute weight)?

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1