John Firth wrote, On 4/20/2014 5:19 AM:
At 02:29 19 April 2014, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Dave Nadler wrote, On 4/17/2014 3:08 AM:
On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 10:48:39 PM UTC-4, Eric Greenwell wrote:
It's a decent presentation, but I do think "plummet mode" grossly
exaggerates the situation: my ASH 26 E does not have a "plummet mode",

As was discussed in the talk, had you bothered to attend...


nor do similar gliders like the DG 800, Ventus self-launchers, etc.

Wrong...


... I'd reserve the
term "plummet mode" to sustainers that require diving to start the
engine.

If you had flown some of the planes I have, you would
have a rather different opinion.


The PIK20E with engine extended has a glide ratio no
better than 10:1 at 50kts.

I've read it's more like 15:1. Do you have a reference for the PIK20E
glide angle? I don't remember such a bad glide angle on the one I flew a
number of times.

In any case, the 18 meter, buried engine self-launchers have a much
higher "mast extended" L/D.

--
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 - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl