John is going to fly in the UK where altitude is not
an issue and a turbo can be flown by any glider pilot,
unlike an SLMG, so that was the relevant market for
his posting. Turbos sell very well in Europe.

BTW I didn't notice any problem with our Duo turbo
engine in test runs at 6,500 ASL in the Pyrenees with
airfield (2300 feet elevation) ground temperature in
the mid 30s C. That can't be very different from the
likely altitude and temperature of saves in your area.
Its climb rate is under 2 knots at STP and it drops
off as you get hotter and higher but a pilot would
have to fly totally irresponsibly to get into a situation
he could not get out of with the turbo. It won't stop
someone from flying into a mountain side or crashing
at low level in a microburst but not much else will
either.

The true climb rate advantage of a motor glider is
the rate of climb (poor in the Duo but OK in the single
seat turbos) plus the sink rate of the equivalent non-powered
glider at around best LD. Our previous Discus BT had
a still air climb rate of about 290 fpm so it was gaining
about 420fpm compared with how things would have been
without the engine. A 10 minute burn would make me
relatively 4,200 feet better off than without the engine
- whatever the sink rate of the air. Less in the Western
USA no doubt but it is surprising how little engine
time is needed to utterly transform a situation.

Many single seat Schempp-Hirth turbos have the little
exhaust outlet restrictors removed and that makes a
big difference to the performance - not that I would
put that in writing. Oops.

John Galloway


At 20:48 06 October 2003, Marc Ramsey wrote:

'John Galloway' wrote...
Another major consideration is that when you come
to
sell your glider the market for a SLMG is very much
smaller than that for a turbo.

This depends on what market you're talking about.
In the western US, for
instance, there is essentially no market for turbos
(given the altitudes and the
common sink rates, they just don't work), but there
is a very strong market for
SLMGs...

Marc