I fully agree with 25 deg south about the human factors influence on the Global Flyer;- As with pretty much all A/C the final design always ends up being optimised to meet the whole end user requirement set and hence each single design element is compromised to some extent.

Eta – Although yes it does have an engine and can take of, its much more glider than powered aircraft. Put an average power pilot in an S10 and they will feel at home (whilst keeping the engine on most of the time) and pretty uniquely the same applies to an average glider pilot in an S10 (keeping the engine off most of the time). With Eta however, because of the very slow climb rates and other interesting handling issues I think an average power pilot in Eta would “roll it into a ball” (or refuse to ever fly it again if they did get down in one piece);- Eta is for experienced glider pilots only and is designed to spend most of flying time engine off…….i.e. A futher example of the above paragraph.