I am a bit confused by the right length of fuselage for pumping. It seems pro dockstarters are using very short fuselage. My experience is that the longer the fuselage the lower pumping cadence and the longer you can pump. Is it correct to say that short fuselage is better for maxspeed and turns but lower pumping duration?
Hi, A long fuselage will give you lightly more glide, but will cost you speed and also energy. A long fuselage is more resistant to pitch change and accerleration, so it takes more energy to pump it back to the surface. A short fuselage is less resistant to pitch change and acceleration, so you have to input less power to pump it up to the surface again. So both will work for longer durations, depending on your style of pumping. The actuall glide length is not affected so much by fuselage length, so you should be able to glide just as long on a short fuselage as a long fuselage
I am a bit confused by the right length of fuselage for pumping. It seems pro dockstarters are using very short fuselage. My experience is that the longer the fuselage the lower pumping cadence and the longer you can pump.
Is it correct to say that short fuselage is better for maxspeed and turns but lower pumping duration?
Hi,
A long fuselage will give you lightly more glide, but will cost you speed and also energy. A long fuselage is more resistant to pitch change and accerleration, so it takes more energy to pump it back to the surface.
A short fuselage is less resistant to pitch change and acceleration, so you have to input less power to pump it up to the surface again.
So both will work for longer durations, depending on your style of pumping. The actuall glide length is not affected so much by fuselage length, so you should be able to glide just as long on a short fuselage as a long fuselage