On Apr 27, 3:45 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:03:33 -0700 (PDT), WingFlaps
wrote in
:



On Apr 28, 9:32 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:34:55 -0700 (PDT), WingFlaps
wrote in
:

A radar reflector like they use on weather balloon ought be
sufficient. It is just a piece of foil with a large cross section.

That's a constructive suggestion.

How large must such a radar reflector be?

It's a retroreflector, I have one in the form of a tube about 3 inches
in diameter and 2 feet long. The corner cubes are inside that. I have
no idea how effective it is compared to a classic reflector which
occupies a cube about 1 foot across and retroreflects the radar
equally in all directions.
...

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

How do you think it might affect a sailplane's L/D?

Well, if the sailplane skin is transparent to radar a big reflector
could be mounted inside, they don't weigh much. On the other hand a
cylinder type reflector could be made quite aerodynamic and even
incorporated into (say) the wing tips?

Cheers

That sounds like a very simple, inexpensive and effective solution to
the issue. Best of all, the pilot can't turn it off. :-)

Unfortunately too simple. The problem is NOT ATC's equipment having
trouble painting a glider. The problem is the threshold of sensitivity
on their radars is set far too high to display us since they
intentionally filter out things as slow as a glider, particularly if
it's thermalling. We are simply filtered out as clutter (according to
the rep Reno sent to address PASCO last winter). That said, I'm sure
we don't all read the same on radar, but gliders are not the stealth
aircraft they are being made out to be. I believe cockpit alone has a
rather large signature, unless of course you paid the extra $1,000,000
for the one molecule thick layer of electrically deposited gold on
your canopy. There's more to a stealth aircraft then it being made of
fiberglass, or even carbon...

Paul