View Single Post
  #30  
Old September 10th 19, 06:24 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 465
Default Kawa rough landing?

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 11:09:12 AM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 7:45:04 AM UTC-4, Peter F wrote:
At 08:05 10 September 2019, krasw wrote:
There has been FES selflauncher accident because powerplant failure and

one
really close call. They aren't any better.


Can you provide links to these incidents?

I would expect them to ba at least 1 order of magnitude better than the
traditional turbo.


https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...relim&IType=LA


"His last calculation of remaining battery energy was about 20 minutes from DXR,
when he noted about 20% battery life remaining. As he prepared to enter the DXR traffic pattern for landing on runway 26, he noted that the glider's altitude was low. He turned on the electric motor; however, it produced only minimal power and the glider continued to lose altitude until it impacted trees and a house 2.7 miles northeast of DXR."

That one was neither a close call (alas), nor a powerplant failure. Rather an empty battery, due to prior self-launch and cruise, without securing alternatives. Analogous to running out of gasoline. It is not evidence against the claim that FES is inherently more reliable than traditional turbo. Besides the electric motor starting reliably (as long as one keeps some "fuel in the tank"), there is also no added drag like from the boom of a retractable engine (of any type).