- Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:52 pm
#406682
What glider today has the best glide? Also what Glider Today hat is the Fastest.?
TjW wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:34 pm I think even king-posted high performance gliders are to the point where the cleanliness of the harness is going to have a relatively large effect on max L/D.In 2017 I was flying my U2 145 with a tracer pod and often noticed inferior glide even compared to Sport 2's with racing harnesses. In 2018 I flew with a Tenax 4 on the same glider and had an equal or better glide compared to all other gliders I competed against in the sport class, I never had the same issue, not even once. That said the Tenax 4 is heavier than the tracer as well, so it put my wing loading to the upper middle of the range, instead of middle. Still though previously it was significantly worse than now, I'd have lines vibrating and everything back there previously, pulling in just caused me to sink, where now I get some additional flat speed.
Charlie Romeo wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2019 10:44 pmThis race for performance and subsequent expensive exotic materialsI would basically agree, we have topless gliders for that. Though exotic materials and expense I don't think are a driving factor, you can always get pretty good used gliders at much less cost, even beginner gliders new aren't that much really. What would a full carbon S3 be like? What could the weight be gotten down to? Wing momentum could be further reduced, etc.
The higher the a/r, the less user friendly the glider Col.Ah, yes, the exact point of the Puffin design, for the training hill.