Taking the Scout Zero to cloud base and on a 50km FAI triangle | Pohjanmaa | Finland | 10.07.2023

[@nico_albrecht]

Great Flight Hauke. Thumbs press for alot more of these days. 😊👌

[@haukeplambeck]

Thanks Nico! Much appreciated. Wishing you many more good days to fly this summer in Germany too 🌤️ 🦅 😎

[@tolvanea]

Nice video! Thumbs up for all the information you have given here in comment section. Hadn't heard of the carrying bag, hopefully they finish it soon. By the way, how much carrying space there is during the flight? Like, how large is the front container, and is there any larger pockets? Wondering where you could stuff the carrying bag during the flight.

[@haukeplambeck]

Good question ! There are two side pockets with zippers in the pod. I managed to fit a radio and Insta360 cam on an extendable selfie stick (end of the stick peeking out a bit) on one side and a power bank, 0.5l drink, an apple and a security leash for tree landing on the other side. Then there's a storage compartment under the seat also secured by a zipper. It's got probably 4-5 liters of storage space. Behind it is the back protector. @nico_albrecht has removed it to fit in his tent and camping stuff when he does multi day trips. So sacrificing the protector will probably give an additional 6 to 8 liters of space. That's all there is. The space behind your back where you normally store your stuff in an XC harness houses the titanium mechanism connecting the harness and the engine and below this is the 6.5 liter fuel tank. The front container is occupied by the safety parachute. I have a gegular Beamer 3 130 installed (not the light version). It fits well. @nico_albrech has attached a zipper bag below the instrument dash board that's integrated into the front container. The harness is produced by Supair for Scout by the way.

[@haukeplambeck]

If you have time and want to see the system you're welcome to visit. I'm located 10km south of Laihia.

[@tolvanea]

@@haukeplambeck Thanks for the information! Planning to buy one before the next season

[@haukeplambeck]

@@tolvanea That would be cool. Then we'll be two Sout Zero pilots in Finland. I hope to also convince some members of Etelä-Pohjanmaan liitäjät about the many benefits.

[@tonydiehl5449]

What is your best estimate of the increased drag from cage and prop-10%, 20%…?

[@haukeplambeck]

A short estimate is about 5%. Longerrrr explanation: I have been flying only in turbulent conditions so far with up and down winds. Here it feels much less than 10%. It feels almost normal. I'm 1.93m so the drag of my chest, arms and head is already quite big and on some occasions the prop didn't even windmill behind my back due my body drag. Also I'm overloading my current wing by +12kg. Taking all these factors together on my current wing an Advance Iota (first edition) I'd say it's around 5%. I have observed about 1.3m/s sink at trim speed above 1500m during transitions that seemed "very calm" and in free flight (no engine and upper weight range) my sink rate is close to 1.2m/s at trim speed in that altitude. I plan to do some tests in Autumn on calm days for climb rate, level flight RPM and sink rates at different speeds ( trim, accelerated, minimum speed ). I'll do it to compare the differences of my old wing with the Niviuk Artik R to which I will upgrade to shortly. Once I have completed the tests I'll make sure to provide a feedback here. I hope a higher aspect ratio wing will lower the RPM for level flight and further increase fuel efficiency. Also dealing with headwinds should become better on half bar on the Artik R. @nico_albrecht reported on tests with the ScoutZero on the two liner Libra that he had the best glide ratio at trim speed. When accelerating it deteriorated. So this needs some further investigation.

[@tonydiehl5449]

@@haukeplambeck great info. Thank you. Looking forward to updates. Planning to order a zero soon as well.

[@haukeplambeck]

@@tonydiehl5449 You're an experienced paramotor pilot I've seen. That is great. I had to make a paramotor licence first last winter before getting the Zero. If you have any questions let me know. Looking forward to you joining the global team of Scout Zero pilots 🌤️🪂💨

[@tonydiehl5449]

@@haukeplambeck I am getting pretty excited your impression sounds really positive. For a wing I have a BGD Echo 2 in ML (90-110 KG). I am at ~83KG so I will be nicely loaded but not overloaded. Seems like I can expect performance not too far off from free flight w/o motor. A more trivial question I have is what your unit looks like packed up for transport. I feel like I have seen videos of a rolling case and maybe a backpack but I can’t seem to find that now.

[@haukeplambeck]

@@tonydiehl5449 Yes. You'll be flying around the sweet spot! Been thinking that before you asked I haven't wasted any thoughts about drag. Probably it's way less than 5% as the cage is very minimalist and once you're in flight position it has every little drag. I know the Scout team will work on a folding prop soon. Guess that's a really cool option once available. But in the end what matters most for good performance are good XC days. Then every other metric comes second 😊

[@danielkremer6494]

You wrote "it's the first time I make it to cloud base with this setup" That sounds like it would be very difficult to get to the cloud base with tis setup as you had already couple of flights. Was it really difficult or it was because on previous flight you had no clouds? Thanks!

[@haukeplambeck]

On this flight it was easy as the weather was just perfect. Good thermals and clouds right after start, high cloud base of about 2000m and little wind. Previous flights were shorter as I needed to test and get used to everything. Also on some days clouds are missing or far inland and sometimes there are blue thermals sometimes not. Once the engine is off it almost like free flying and that is really cool. This was only my 9th flight with the ScoutZero. Now it feels perfect and I'm ready to go on longer XC flights with it and plan to spend more time at cloud base :D

[@danielkremer6494]

@@haukeplambeck that sounds perfect. Thanks for your insights and enjoy the sky :-)