On Jun 6, 3:33 pm, Richard Riley wrote:
On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 08:29:36 -0600, "Wayne Paul"
wrote:

While wading into the technical requirements required to certify an aircraft
as motorglider, the basic definition a glider should not be overlooked.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines a glider as a
heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic
reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does
not depend on an engine.

As has been stated, gliders are launched by three methods, ground launch
(winch/auto-tow), aero-tow and self-launch (motor.)

It may be hard to convince FAA your homebuilt is a self-launch glider if it
can not maintain flight with the engine(s) turned off.

All aircraft can maintain flight with the engine(s) turned off. The
question is how for how long, and how far.


The Sky Pup ultralight is reported to have a glide ratio of 14 to 1,
almost as good as a Schweitzer glider.
....

The weight/span squared is a reasonable stab at L/D that you can do
with simple tools (scale, tape measure) and without having to estimate
drag. If a few people figure out how to game the system, I think FAA
is OK with that. So, you get a few heavy ULs. They're not going to
be THAT heavy, and even though the pilot doesn't have to have a
medical he DOES have to have a pilot's certificate. With the
comparitively light weight and long wing, he's going to have a pretty
low stall speed. If he crashes into a house he's going to do MUCH
more damage to himself and his machine than the house.

I think that's the key, to legally pilot a motorglider one must
have a glider license with a self-launch endorsement. So even
if the motorglider itself is just a glorified 'fat' ultralight, the
pilot at
least has some minimum required level of competency.

--

FF