Day three of the Green Speed Cup in Strausberg, Germany brought few surprises other than how fuel efficient all of the aircraft turned out to be, especially considering they are all powered by gasoline engines. Normally, this would demonstrate that even a light machine uses large amounts of fuel, but this contest demonstrated the benefits of good design and careful piloting. The Akaflieg Darmstadt D39 flown by Holger Massow came in first, winning the last two days outright. Second went to Hans-Peter Ortwein flying a Stemme SV-10T, and third, perhaps surprisingly, to the only two-stroke powered machine, a Technoflug Piccolo, a fixed-gear, high-wing motorglider with an engine sticking up behind the wing. The Piccolo was flown by Werner Scholz. Two Valentin Taifuns came in fourth and fifth, and a Stemme S6 took sixth place. Two Scheibe SF-25s, a B and C model, took seventh and eighth places respectively. A Fournier RF-5 captured ninth place and another SF-25-C rounded out the …
Green Speed Cup Day Two – A Clear Winner
Robert Adam, one of the organizers of the Green Speed Cup in Germany and pilot of the Flight Design CTLS that ended the competition in seventh place, shared some information on the challenges faced by pilots in this year’s event. “We had 12-15 knots crosswind today (only a little less yesterday) and Tim-Peter (-Voss) managed this demanding taildragger (the SPACEK s.r.o. SD-1 microlight) calmly!” This very light and short-coupled airplane flies with a variety of two- and four-stroke engines, but Voss’ had a Verner JVC-360 four-stroke unit of 38 horsepower. It averaged a little over four liters per hour fuel consumption per 100 kilometers (59 mpg) over the practice day and two contest days. In the Green Flight Challenge, it would have been penalized for being a single-seater and thus having a lower passenger-mile-per-gallon figure than the two, and even four-seat entrants. The TDI turbo-diesel DA-40, for instance, would have had a 4X passenger mile per gallon figure if that had …
Green Speed Cup – Training Day is Over and Day One Establishes a Record
Happily for those of us who champion the idea of electric aircraft, the practice day and day one of the Green Speed Cup in Strausberg, Germany fetched a world electric aircraft distance record for e-Genius and an outstanding showing for all concerned. This beginning for the third running of the Cup sets a high standard for the coming days. The Green Speed Cup has elements of soaring flight through the use of thermals, careful speed flying that emphasizes fuel economy, and precise flight planning with attention to the planned route, winds aloft, and power settings. Green Speed Cup organizers map out a series of triangular routes to test the limits of piloting skills and airplane efficiency. As the organizers explain, it’s all pretty simple: “To fly ‘green’ you have to know how fast to fly and which power setting to use. This depends on the current wind-profile, on the current lift and on several other parameters like the aerodynamical properties.” …
Green Speed Cup – Year Two, Days Three and Four
As the Stemme Green Speed Cup speeds into day five of a six-day series of challenges, the leaders are all – little surprise here – Stemme aircraft. Markus Scherdel took first place on day three’s task, a 346.1 kilometer (214.58 mile) triangle, with a new low in fuel consumption, 2.5 liters per 100 kilometers (94.08 mpg or 188.16 passenger miles per gallon) at an average speed of 142.2 kilometers per hour (88.16 mph). This is impressive because it comes close to requirements for Green Flight Challenge qualification. None of the five Stemmes competing managed less than 4.5 l./100 km. (52.26 mpg), right in Prius territory at much higher speeds. The Diamond DA40 TDI departed the contest because of other obligations for pilot Daniel Hirth: the Arcus electric motorglider did not compete because its limited range would have probably forced an outlanding. The video provides a warp-speed view of day four’s task. Day four found the S6RT, the retractable-gear version of …