Something nice on a cold day

Hello everybody,
I apoligize for not answering your questions earlier,
life is rather busy here.

The movies:
They are very much a one man production by our engineer,
test-pilot, camera man, movie director and musician
Ola Roer Thorsen. Copyrighted music could not be utilized,
but we still think the result is acceptable

Charging:
A full charge takes 9 hours, using the integrated charger.
A full charge costs less than 2 euro, and gives you
more than 3000m
climb (depending on aircraft weight). Partial charges
and discharges are no problem, as the batteries have
no memory-effect.

Rigging:
The batteries are positioned in front of the wing spar,
filling the volume from the wing root and approximately
3.2 m outwards.
This minimizes negative effects on aircraft inertia.

Add to this the novel control system used in the Antares,
and the result is a surprisingly agile glider, with
handling close to that of a 15m glider. Based on this,
I am curious as to how the 18m Antares will handle
when carrying no water.

Each wing of the Anmtares 20E weighs approximately
120 kg including batteries. In order to get the wing
out of the trailer and into the rigging aid, the pilot
handles the wingtip, lifting maximally 30 kg, and usually
only for 20-30 seconds.
The rigging aid grips the wing at its cg, and uses
a gas-spring to ballance the wing vertically. This
makes it possible to rig the Antares 20E single handedly
without breaking a sweath.
Actually it surprices me how much work it is rig a
'normal' glider..
I guess I am a bit spoiled

Speaking of batteries..
In order to create volume for the batteries in the
20E, the spar is positioned markedly rearward of its
normal position. This feature also pays off in the
18m glider, resulting in a marked increase in water
ballast capacity, which is one of the reasons why we
expect it to become a very fast glider. The coming
season will be very interresting indeed.

Ok. I hope that that answered some of your questions.


I wish you all very politically correct happy holidays.

Andor