Also have a look at my other Websites:
Discus cs: www.aerosport.8m.com
Discus 2 T: www.d2t.8m.com
Ridge Soaring: www.rdg.8m.com
Lake Placid: www.lkp.8m.com
DG 1000 vs Duo Discus: www.dgvsduo.8m.com
St. Auban: www.stauban.8m.com
Duo Discsus T: www.ddtr.8m.com
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Motor gliders, a work in progress
Written By: Real Le Goueff
I have had a Turbo glider for the past 2 year. Since motorized sail-planes have not bin around all that long, information on these type of gliders is not that abundant. I thought that sharing my newly acquired experience with others thinking about the motor glider world could be of some help. My experience is minimal and some things that I think or do now will possibly change with time. But my input, added to other documentation available, could be useful in helping one to decide whether he goes with an engine or not, and if so what type of engine.
Due to the limited documentation on this topic, gaining experience with a motor glider is mostly a painful self learning process and I have just begun a long journey in this new world. Consequently one should read what I write only for what it is (a personal experience) and nothing more. What I have is a Sustainer Glider, not a Self Launching Sail-plane SLS, thus I will limit my talk to the turbo gliders.
For as long as I can remember since I began flying glider, I was hoping to get a motor glider sometime in my glider pilot career. The independence that this would leed to was inspiring. Being able to take-off or cover long distances to reach a point far away and coming back home to avoid a retrieve was what I was hoping for from a motor glider.
When I looked into what I would like to get I was keen on getting a self launching sail-plane (SLS), I thought this was the “Right Stuff”. I knew about the turbo (or sustained engine) but in my opinion this was a bad solution. I thought that the turbo was uniting the worst of both world, witch was having the problems of a motor without the benefit of being able to take-off.
I had also eared about electrical gliders, even tough they appeared interesting there autonomy was minimal, generally only giving you enough energy for a single takeoff. From that point on you where stuck with the weight of the batteries without anymore benefits, witch for me was light-years away from what I was hoping for. Lets mention that this field of electric propulsions quickly evolving, and there is now a new electric glider that appears very interesting.
I read a lot on that topic, learn the pros and cons of having a motor glider and came to the conclusion that I could deal with it. One of the comments that would frequently surface was that one needed to be mechanically inclined, even more so with self lunching sail-plane. I now tend to believe this is not exaggerated, specialy when I see a fellow pilot at my club with his SLS.
I looked at various web site and magazines to find a used SLS and found that they where ether to far away to have a look at them and/or very expensive has a second hands gliders. Whether used or new the price tag was generally 50% more expensive than the equivalent glider without a motor.
At some point I had found a DG600M 17m in the US, but going over to have a look at it was a tedious task. I came close to making the move but the major deterrent was the illusive information provide by Transport Canada about the type approval process for a new glider model. There was already a DG600 in Canada but no 600M.
T.C. provided me with comments that lead to a real labyrinth of technocracy. Some government agencies know how to elude strait answers. At the end of my red tape research all those loose ends discourage me, and I drop the idea of going through the type approval nightmare. Antidepressant medicine would certainly be severely put to the test here! I suggest taking it before starting the process!
In the end of 2000, When the money ultimately became available, I decide to make the jump in the glider owner world. My club has very good gliders, but of course a lot of pilot wants to fly them. Consequently it is difficult to make long flights, and using a club glider for a x-country flight would deprive other member of flying time. I had reached the point where waiting to share the club glider was preventing me from building hours and therefore I was not really improving anymore.
Help from other owners:
In my quest some fellow pilots have given me advice’s which were of a great help. To summarize them they basically told me 3 things:
1. Having the money in a glider was almost has good as having it in the bank. Ironically one even told me that instead of buying one glider he should have bought 2 and made a much better investment than the ones he did in the stock market!
2. Don’t buy junk, because you’ll will spend a lot of money to improve or repair it and you will never have more than an hold glider, and most likely you will want to sell it to have a better one. Doing so you are just postponing things and you will go through the process of having to sell a glider on top of trying to find a better one, not to mention the time lost.
3. The more you wait to more you will impinge on your glider pilot life which has an end in time.
Since motorized glider where a lot more expensive and somewhat still of a mystery to me, I finally opted for a standard 15m non motorized Discus CS witch turned out to be excellent and quickly available.
I postponed the buying of a motor glider thinking that building experience on a standard one would be a sure bet, and also leave me enough time to get my act together and know the type of motor glider I really wanted: 15 or 18m, flaps or no flaps, turbo or self-lunching. Despite my satisfaction with my new ship my craving for a self lunching resurfaced and I soon looked again at motor gliders.
At some point I discussed the mater with the German dealer (on the East Coast) about the pros and the cons of a motor. I was pointing out that in my opinion the only way to go was the full fledge motor with self launching capability. Then the dealer brought to my attention 4 important points in comparing Self launching vs. Sustainer gliders:
1. The turbo will add 23,000$ CDN to the price of your glider. The self launching will add 50,000 and therefore the 27,000$ difference meant a lot of tows.
2. If there is nobody flying, it is probably not worth going on your own anyway.
3. The complexity of a self launching motor was not comparable to a turbo.
4. A turbo adds about 70-90pounds to a glider and the self launching was about twice as much and it’s no fun to have ballast you can’t get rid of when the thermals are getting week.
5. What you realy whant is to come back home and avoid a retrieve at the day’s end.
Knowing what I now know, I would had a 6th argument, witch is that a turbo is safer than a SLS. Among other thing you don’t have to deal with emergencies like a power lost on take off.
To summarize: Price, flying need, Complexity, weigh, retrieve, safety, where important features.
These heavyweight arguments had shed new light on the way I was looking at the motor world. I began to look at sustainer gliders in a whole new way. I also had the occasion to look at a DG400 and a Ventus 2CM and they really looked pretty complicated mechanically, not to mention start up procedures. As time passed the idea of buying a SLS progressively weaned off. Simultaneously I gradually change my mind about sustainer. As oppose to what I was previously thinking, I finally decided that this may indeed be the best of both world. Nevertheless I still think that SLS are great, but it wasn’t for me at this point.
