Jonathan St. Cloud wrote on 9/18/2019 5:20 AM:
On Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 8:49:45 PM UTC-7, Eric Greenwell wrote:
BG wrote on 9/17/2019 8:17 PM:
Any time someone lands their motor glider with engine extended has to ask questions about what happen. No one would ever deliberately choose to land with a extended engine and expect the best outcome. It is like flying with full spoilers with no ability to change things, you are in uncharted territory. The right thing would have been to start the relight at a higher altitude, then it it does not work, retract the engine and fly a more controllable aircraft into the best options available. The fact the engine was still out tells a story about pilot errors and understanding.


I beg to differ...The rate of sink from an extended mast depends very much on the
glider. For example, my ASH26E lands easily with the mast extended, and it's
definitely NOT like flying with full spoilers. I've tried it a couple times, and
it was such a non-event, I decided it was pointless to practice anymore.

Generally, a pilot will land with the mast extended because it will not retract,
or because he is too busy landing to retract it. Of course, it will not glide as
far with the mast extended, so I don't begin a restart until I am within a mast-up
gliding distance of a good landing place - just in case it doesn't retract after a
failed start.

Want to know more about flying a self-launching sailplane? Get the "A Guide to
Self-Launching Sailplane Operation", where all this and much more is covered.

https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)

"...so I don't begin a restart until I am within a mast-up
gliding distance of a good landing place - just in case it doesn't retract after a
failed start. " Just to highlight the salient point

Not really the point I tried to make, which is many motorgliders do not "plummet"
or become less controllable because the mast is up, so you don't have to fear a
landing in that configuration. If you are flying a normal pattern, you just use
less spoiler, or turn base a bit earlier. The situation where the reduced mast-up
glide distance is an issue is a high restart many miles from your chosen landing
place. It's just one more factor in your arrival height calculation, along with
wind, wing loading, and bugs.


--
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
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf