Newest Sailplane in the world on display at the 2016 SSA convention

The statement that the Ventus 3 would be at the Greenville convention is completely my responsibility. At the time I made it I thought that it was true. As soon as I was made aware that it was not true, I pointed RAS readers to a list of what was actually going to be at the show, on Facebook. M&H requested that I refrain from further posts on RAS, and I complied. I wasn't the most trustworthy spokesman at that point, and This is not a universally admired forum. You guys get a little carried away sometimes, and sometimes it turns downright nasty.

When we were setting up the convention in earnest a little over a year ago the V3 was promised to us. Aviation projects don't usually finish on time, and the V3 was no exception, so it simply was not ready for the show. I was not aware of that, and combined with some poor communication on my part.... led to the assumption that it was still going to be there. Sorry guys, as my wife will tell you: sometimes I do the damnedest things.

The real story on the V3 was presented at the convention, and that was better than seeing another pretty white glider on the show floor. I hope they write it up for publication somewhere because it was truly fascinating how they determined how much time was spent flying at certain speeds by analyzing top competitors actual contest flight traces, and how they picked wing designs to optimize the gliders performance in those areas. The other interesting part of the data was how little time the pilots actually spent flying at the best L/D speed, hardly any at all. So a singular focus on optimizing best L/D isn't going to result in a contest winning glider.

To find out if all this works when it comes to race day performance is going to be interesting, and the only way to find that out is to race it. I hope it works the way they think it will. It's the first new design in this class in quite some time. It would be a shame if all the work they put into it wasn't rewarded.

SF

Hear hear, i completely agree with everything you wrote! fascinating stuff!

The real story on the V3 was presented at the convention, and that was better than seeing another pretty white glider on the show floor. I hope they write it up for publication somewhere because it was truly fascinating how they determined how much time was spent flying at certain speeds by analyzing top competitors actual contest flight traces, and how they picked wing designs to optimize the gliders performance in those areas. The other interesting part of the data was how little time the pilots actually spent flying at the best L/D speed, hardly any at all. So a singular focus on optimizing best L/D isn't going to result in a contest winning glider.