Bug Wipers for Gliders
Fred Black
Over the last several months, I have noticed advertisements for a
device that supposedly cleans glider wing leading edges in flight.
The test of the advertisement is as follows.
: Bug Wipers. Mechanical device for in-flight wing leading edge
: cleaning, newly developed in Europe after ten years of R&D.
: Widely used at World contest.
The device sells for about $700.00 Canadian. Does anybody out there
know how such a device works. I am wondering how the device keeps
from falling off, how it has been arranged to add less drag that the
bugs that it removes etc. Has anybody ever seen one of these.
Another read-only netter makes his first post.
--
Fred Black Email: f...@uhura.doe.carleton.ca
1466 Edgecliffe Ave.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1Z 8G1
Randy Gobbel
you have a couple of very thin guide wires stuck in some aerodynamically
inconspicuous place on the wing. You push a button in the cockpit, and
aerodynamic forces push this thingamajig with a piece of nylon monofilament
along the wing, scraping off bugs as it goes. When it gets to the wingtip,
you crank it back in until next time. The hard part is keeping it from
messing up the airflow over the wing when you're not using it, but it really
has been used a lot contests lately, so I imagine that it does actually work.
The guy who's been selling them is a reasonable sort--I met him when he was
at Minden a couple of years ago. Name's Peter Masak (Masek?), a Canadian who
lives in Texas, flies a Nimbus 3. Won the U.S. Sports Class Nationals a
couple of years ago.
-Randy
Rich Carr
>
Jer/, your airplane bias is showing!
> Unless you have a local soaring club where you can trade your hours of
> working around the gliderport for lessons... Soaring is more expensive
> than flying powered aircraft.
ON AN HOURLY BASIS, this is usually true, due to the inescapable fact
the you're paying for two pilots and two aircraft every time you fly.
Once you solo and have some ability to soar, however, the long hours you
can spend aloft make the initial tow charge amortize out to a reasonable
hourly rate. Once you've released from tow, the incremental rate is
just the cost of the glider (and instructor, if dual).
If you can find a club that ground-launches regularly, you'll
save a lot of money on tows but you'll put in more work.
>
> Glider per hour $10
> + 3000 ft tow, 3 per hour @ $29 $87
> + instructor/hr $15
> ----
> $112 / hour
>
> And we haven't even considered the cost of joining the soaring club yet.
A club that operates at a public airport will likely be cheaper. A
club with its own gliderport will have other rewards, like less
traffic, nicer facilities, and better atmosphere.
> Cessna 150 per hour $35
> + instructor/hr $30
> ----
> $65 / hour
>
> The order of achieving the ratings makes some difference, also.
No argument there. But consider further...
> Private Glider 40 hr
> Private Airplane 40 hr
> Total 80 hours
>
> Private Airplane 40 hr
> Private Glider 10 hr
> Total 50 hours
Private glider should take nowhere near 40 hours. The regs only require
7 hours, and that isn't as unrealistic as 40 hours for Private Airplane
seems to be. (That's 7 hours of solo, so say 20 hours solo + dual.) Recent
postings have indicated that the average airplane student takes 60 hours
to get the ticket, while I would expect a rated glider pilot to be able
to get the airplane rating in the minimum time since he doesn't have
to learn the basics of flight. And that assumes that none of your
glider time applies to the airplane rating -- not necessarily true.
Re-doing Jer's table, then:
Private Glider 20 hr $2240
Private Airplane 40 hr $2600
Total 60 hours $4840
Private Airplane 50 hr $3250
Private Glider 10 hr $1120
Total 60 hours $4370
To avoid tilting the scales too much, I've used 50 hours for the initial
airplane rating. Note that if you're trading off the initial glider
ticket against the initial airplane ticket, the glider ticket is still
cheaper by $1000.
> So, you are really better off to get your Private Pilot, Airplane rating
> first and then transition to Private, Glider. You will want both
> ratings anyway... talk to me in 15 years if you think you won't.
Unless you're among the truly blessed and find your way without committing
the sin of combustion!
Consider what you're going to do with the rating. Talk to folks with
glider and airplane ratings and see what they've done with them. If you
want transportation, you'll need an instrument rating -- have you got
the bucks? If not, you might be bored with the private airplane rating.
If you want sport, consider acrobatics or soaring, both of which are
"unmasterable" activities; that is, it's harder to get bored.
Rich Carr
CFIG
(OK, I'm biased.)