Windrose II 15-meter Motorglider Plans For Sale

Jim and I are conducting a Spar workshop on november 22-23, 2003 in Marion
OH.

Carbon Rovings are a very poor spar material since you cannot pull all of
the strands straight and through testing it was found to have a wide
variance in tension and compression. Compression being the worst case which
is about 40,000 to 80,000 psi... one may get to 120,000 psi in tension but
this is highly unreliable so you must degrade the enitre layup ..... but
just what do you degrade it to... it depends on how well the person laid it
up. With the Tests that Jim did, they where extremely careful and where
professional fabricators in fiberglass and those results where very
discouraging.. With carbon rods there is no guessing as to what numbers you
are dealing with. Also the process has been thoroughly tested.

The other problem is that with the windrose construction you are directed to
drill through the carbon. This is an absolute mistake!! This is dangerous.

If you are asking an amateur builder to construct the spar with roving you
have a situation where the result is highly unpedictible and then drilling
through the spar increases the danger that the spar could fail.

As for instances of actual breaking in the air..... I'd rather build it
correctly first and not have to site facts of dead pilots and broken wings.
See our testing of the carbon Monarch spar on our web site for example.

All of the Maupin plans need upgrading to deal with modern practices and
show that indeed the aircraft have been throughly tested. From what I have
seen the Maupin/ Culver designs where never thoroughly tested and with the
15 meter windrose was never even built by the designers.

Jim Maupins designs were wonderful concepts and should be studied with that
in mind but they are not a refined aricraft as they exist at present.

Having siad all of that we in north america do need some brave designers to
challenge the dominance of the German ships. It takes a lot of money, guts,
research and hard work. and do not expect much support from your fellow
soaring pilots! That Jim Maupin got outside the normal glider design was
very welcome... that he tried new concepts was great...that he opened up the
light sailplane was terriffic..... but we need dedicated people to continue
these ventures. It will not be profitable... and plans should not be sold
unless you have a craft that has been thoroughly tested. However people can
donate to the cause and be an active part of a development.

-mat
--
Marske Flying Wings
http://www.continuo.com/marske