why are they bothering running her up if she’s going to be dismantled???

Just to hear the noise???:p :p 😀 😀 😀

They are also hoping to aerotow it.
Dave

That will be an interesting exercise for all involved. We did it in Iceland about 10 years ago with a Grunau 9 primary glider, and it has not been repeated:o The tow plane was a 135 horse Super Cub, and the very experinced tow pilot who flew the aircraft, told us it was right on the limit of being too underpowered. The combo was not flown above (IIRC) 45 mph during the tow, as the ´9 was never designed for airtow the speed had to be kept down for structural reasons. How they arrived at the magic number of 45 mph, I do not know. However, at that speed, with the great drag produced by the glider, the Super Cub was well and truly on the backside of the powercurve. The tow was abonded at about 700 feet as the engine of the Cub was overheating at full power at such a slow speed. After release, the glider came down like a brick, the glide ratio was not very great.

Luton Minor is out of the question as a tow plane, I think.

No reason has been citied for this failure

I think this part in the first post answers that:cool:

long haul lo-co

I can´t see how a low cost long haul, with all that comes with it, can survive. Many have tried, so far all have failed. Not just in todays climate, but in years gone by.

It certainly will!! It will, for example, mean that the Flug Werke FW-190 will get a permit to fly in the UK based on it´s German permit. The guys at Duxford knew this was comming when they registered the FW-190:)

Ahh, but James, stalling speed is very relevant to the approach speed. The optimum approach speed for aircraft (can´t talk about a Spit, ´cause I´ve never flown one!) is 1.3 times the stalling speed! So the approach speed and stall speed are very much related to each other.

On the other hand, 20 mph increase in stalling speed without wingtips seems a bit too much for me! That part of the wing is not generating a awful lot of lift!

Unfourtunately the search has been called off, with no sign of the pilot.
Here is a news piece that was quoted in the Icelandic newspapers last night.
http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2008/feb/22/local-pilot-missing-north-atlantic/?news

Does not look too good. The aircraft went down around 1130 this morning about 130 NM southeast of Hornafjordur. Wave hight reported as 8-9 meters, chopers and a coast guard vessel have been on station there all afternoon. No sign of the pilot yet. Aerial search has been called off due to darkness, but will presumably resume in the morning.