Self-launch two-seater

I was a bit scared because Taurus being UL. How good speed-gliding
performance you can realistically get from relatively light glider?
Does anyone have experience how this bird behaves in thermals?

In USA it is not even close to an Ultralight, but can be registered
Light Sport (1000lb difference), and of courser one can also register
it as a normal motorglider as well. It's not light per se', just not
as heavy as most 2 seaters since it only has 15m of wing. The fuselage
shape contributes lift to make up for lack of wing area. I read a
review sometime back that spoke very favorably in it's flight
characteristics, including thermaling.

-Paul

There is also the LAK-20 M....

The Taurus is "ultralight" in the sense of meeting certain European
licensing classifications. I believe that 4 of the 5 now in the US
are licensed as experimental and the 5th one as an LSA glider. I
understand that the factory is preparing a new manual for countries
like US, in which the gross weight and max payload will be
substantially greater than for the ships licensed in Europe. Empty
weight on my ship is 309 kg / 618 lbs. (including the engine &
ballistic parachute).

The informal consensus seems to be that it has a real world L/D in the
high 30s, which is consistent with my experience.

Thermals nicely. Relatively short wings make for very nice handling,
but of course, you're losing the benefits of longer wings in pure L/D.

I've been very happy with mine so far, other than not flying it
enough....

- Kevin

On Aug 6, 11:02*am, sisu1a wrote:
I was a bit scared because Taurus being UL. How good speed-gliding
performance you can realistically get from relatively light glider?
Does anyone have experience how this bird behaves in thermals?

In USA it is not even close to an Ultralight, but can be registered
Light Sport (1000lb difference), and of courser one can also register
it as a normal motorglider as well. It's not light per se', just not
as heavy as most 2 seaters since it only has 15m of wing. The fuselage
shape contributes lift to make up for lack of wing area. I read a
review sometime back that spoke very favorably in it's flight
characteristics, including thermaling.

-Paul

On Aug 6, 2:22*pm, Kevin wrote:
The Taurus is "ultralight" in the sense of meeting certain European
licensing classifications. *I believe that 4 of the 5 now in the US
are licensed as experimental and the 5th one as an LSA glider. *I
understand that the factory is preparing a new manual for countries
like US, in which the gross weight and max payload will be
substantially greater than for the ships licensed in Europe. *Empty
weight on my ship is 309 kg / 618 lbs. (including the engine &
ballistic parachute).

The informal consensus seems to be that it has a real world L/D in the
high 30s, which is consistent with my experience.

Thermals nicely. *Relatively short wings make for very nice handling,
but of course, you're losing the benefits of longer wings in pure L/D.

I've been very happy with mine so far, other than not flying it
enough....

- Kevin

On Aug 6, 11:02*am, sisu1a wrote:

I was a bit scared because Taurus being UL. How good speed-gliding
performance you can realistically get from relatively light glider?
Does anyone have experience how this bird behaves in thermals?

In USA it is not even close to an Ultralight, but can be registered
Light Sport (1000lb difference), and of courser one can also register
it as a normal motorglider as well. It's not light per se', just not
as heavy as most 2 seaters since it only has 15m of wing. The fuselage
shape contributes lift to make up for lack of wing area. I read a
review sometime back that spoke very favorably in it's flight
characteristics, including thermaling.

-Paul

Here is an write-up of the Taurus-

http://flightlog.seven-alpha.com/taurus.html