Why do gliders have water ballast?
Apart from basic training two seaters, most gliders have the ability to carry water ballast. The sole reason for carrying water ballast is to increase the cross country speed on a task. Water ballast achieves this by increasing the wing loading of the glider.
How do gliders stay aloft without an engine?
In a powered aircraft, the thrust from the engine opposes drag, but a glider has no engine to generate thrust. With the drag unopposed, a glider quickly slows down until it can no longer generate enough lift to oppose the weight, and it then falls to earth.
Why does a glider have two water tanks?
Two water tanks in the wing plus a further 35 liter tank in the fuselage enable the ASW 27 B to carry more water ballast than any other 15 m glider and also give it the widest range of wing loadings If a glider is trying to stay aloft as long as possible, wouldn’t it be better to be light?
Why do you need ballast on a glider?
The ballasted glider, suffering less acceleration imposed by the rough air, can fly faster and lower, where the horizontal wind component is less, requiring a smaller crab angle. Another factor the existing answers don’t mention: if you are flying a two-seater glider alone, you might want to add ballast to correct your center of gravity.
When to use water ballast in a flight?
Tactics: Water ballast is used mostly in competitions, and when several aircraft share one thermal, every pilot waits for the others to fly off to the next thermal. Watching the others tells her/him where the best route for minimum altitude loss is.
Why do gliders have a higher liftrate?
Glider competitions are most of the time a route you have to fly in the shortest time possible. So that means, if you have a higher speed of best glide, you can fly faster in competitions. The only downside to having a higher weight is, that your liftrate in thermals will be decreased and due to the higher speed it is harder to center the thermals.