Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #6

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Whoops almost forgot before we get onto the Communist Bloc. As stated in previous “thrilling and boring dissertations†in this series there were other German production trainers.

 

 

We need to look at the scenario that was in place way back then to see how they fit in.

 

 

The entire world was recovering from World War 2. There was heaps of technology, ample skills (both in design and construction) but you are looking at poverty stricken nations wanting to spend effort on ‘recreation’????

 

 

So it became a dual rat race for those with determination, ability and resources. There seems to have been a continual push towards increasing excellence. That has been reflected in my tales of factory ‘type stables’ steadily evolving as I have already started to recount. But there was also a practicality of keeping flying within reach of people who had little other than the ambition to just fly in their own skies for weekend pleasure. So came the ‘small trainers’ that were cheap but did fly and did so well.

 

 

In an earlier instalment of this series I described the DoppelRaab. This was a small two place machine that was a production glider in kit form, or if you like the lowest entry level machine available. The two others that both saw significant production numbers and served the smaller clubs, were the Schliecher Ka4 RhonLerche (Rhon Lark) of which over 500 were built, and the Scheibe Specht.

 

 

Both these machines looked remarkably similar and both were small at 13 metre span, light and very successful. They were high wing, tandem seat trainers with steel tube and fabric covered fuselages, plus wood and fabric wings with a single lift strut each side. They had main skids and a single mainwheel positioned for optimum ground handling.

 

 

Performance was not great with a quoted glide angle of around 19:1 and not a lot of penetration. General impressions of flying them two up was that you had about the performance of a Grunau Baby. So they definitely did make an impression on a then young glider pilot who only had T31s to fly normally! Being so small they could be turned tightly and thus were very useful soaring machines if you did not want to go anywhere.

 

 

Ka4. I had a long involvement with this type – first in Germany, then importing the first two into UK (from Germany) and also the first two into Australia (from N.Z.). In both cases I was responding to exactly the central purpose of the type – a cheap but useful club trainer when you really needed trainers yet had little money.

 

 

Short and stubby, the Ka4 was very tall for it’s overall size. The two dominant features were a large, single piece, slab sided and topped canopy, plus a massive main skid that was neatly faired in to the fuselage tube structure with a leatherette type material but added to the visual impression of fuselage depth.

 

 

The canopy hinged upwards and backwards until it could be propped standing vertical. This enabled both occupants to get in and out. Unfortunately there was a single small push-pull knob to open the thing right in front of the student. As the student was totally out of reach of the instructor this became a worry because the cable release knob was not far away and even colour coding, careful briefings and verbal prompting did not prevent excited students opening the canopy instead of releasing from tow.

 

 

This did not happen often but would not want to! As soon as the canopy was released the airflow lifted it and blew it backwards with great force until it arrived with a huge bang, upside down on top of the instructor’s cockpit (see more on seating arrangements below) adding further depression to a deteriorating event. The hinges were pretty strong and I never heard of a canopy detaching completely which is good because with their size they would have taken the entire tail unit off. The glider would fly normally with the canopy ‘parked aft’ but naturally was a tad breezy.

 

 

We fixed this by engineering quick release safety clips to the release knobs which slowed students down long enough for the instructor to say something – so the problem went away.

 

 

Both cockpits were roomy enough and access to the front was quite conventional for a glider – you just got in. Access to the back seat was however ‘interesting’. The instructor sits in what is an enclosed box with an open front, well back under the wing and the entry point. A bit more room was allowed by the canopy having shoulders moulded to fit the wing roots so was quite wide. In addition there were no inter-coupled main wing spars – effectively the machine was a ‘three piece wing’ with the upper structure of the cockpit framework forming the connecting portion and centre section.

 

 

Getting in the back seat therefore required a procedure of ‘Adopting the Position’! To do this involved swinging your right foot in and onto the rear cockpit floor panels. You grasped the front cockpit side rails and got the other leg in while bending forwards quite a bit (to miss the canopy above you). You then moved your grip back and got hold of the cross tube supporting the back of the front seat. You were now in the ‘Position’.

 

 

To complete the procedure can be best described as lowering yourself into a bath while hanging onto the taps! You went down and backwards into your cubby hole until seated and you could straighten your upper body.

 

 

This may sound all a bit torturous but once in there was a surprising amount of room. At 6’ I had adequate leg, shoulder and head room.

 

 

The instructor had total control of closing the canopy while the student then had total control of locking and opening the canopy! As the instructor you reached up and unlatched the strut and then lowered the canopy from the back over the student who then latched it – usually with an acid comment from the back that if the knob was touched again before the flight was completed then the student would be cut out of the instructor’s will!

 

 

Visibility from the back seat was also surprisingly good. Flat Perspex panels extended above and beside you to well behind you. Rear three quarter and downwards view was ample. Wings level the shallow section wings enabled easy side viewing and the broad upper clear roof gave good lateral clearance visibility when banked and turning. The one piece side and roof panels of the main canopy itself gave very adequate forward visibility for a tandem seating aircraft.

 

 

Internal visibility of the airframe itself was also excellent because you could see so much of it. You felt that you could almost do a full daily inspection from just being seated in the back seat – and still be able to see so much more than from outside. That proved handy for myself on a couple of occasions when odd weather conditions elevated the blood pressure a bit. At least I could establish it was coming from outside rather than inside.

 

 

The glider was equipped with top surface spoilers only that were smooth in operation and not particularly powerful but gave good approach control vis a vis the machine’s performance. Stalling was benign, but convincing, and spinning was excellent. Side slipping was epic!

 

 

For such a simple little trainer a lot of effort had gone into it’s design. One particular point I was very happy with. The huge main skid bow protruded aft beyond its rear attachment point. To the rear of the skid was affixed the front of the mainwheel cradle with the rear of that being in a housing allowing the cradle to pivot. The big main skid thus acted as a giant shock absorber for the main wheel and dear me did that mean a lot to an instructor when the wheel was directly below your spine!

 

 

One not so clever device was the elevator trimmer – one of those horrible ‘spring in the circuit’ affairs that I loathe on principle and this one was worse because it had a knurled knob on the front stick that took a huge amount of turning to get any effect out of. It was even worse than the pitch trimmer on a Super Cub that I thought was absolutely ghastly when really working the aircraft.

 

 

Mostly this was of no consequence because the Ka4 was primarily an almost one speed aircraft and winch launched beautifully. But it mattered a great deal on aerotow. You could wind the trimmer up to anticipate the tow but that left the student way out of trim after release and the student had total control of the trim. We tended to aerotow trimmed for normal gliding and so the Ka4 was not a comfortable aircraft for aerotow and was quite fatiguing on protracted tows. This was a bit of a shame in comparison with the beautiful combined anti-balance tab and aerodynamic trimmers fitted to the Ka7 and ASK13.

 

 

But overall I have a real soft spot for the Ka4 and have done a few thousand trips in them with nothing really fraught happening.

 

 

Specht. Much of a muchness with the Ka4 given in more detail above. I had little to do with the Specht but will recount one design feature.

 

 

Scheiber got around the ‘Assume the Position†for the instructor to get into the Ka4 by putting a door in the side of the Specht. As such it was one of the few glider types to have side doors.

 

 

At least this allowed the instructor to embark and disembark with some dignity, aloofness, decorum, status, ego preservation or consideration for advancing years/prior injuries etc (tick as many as you like).

 

 

Round Up. The small, cheap, club two seat trainers played a vital role in broadening participation in the sport and getting the civilian population into the air again; providing them with sound stick and rudder skills along with in-depth airmass appreciation

 

 

Even today those early production trainers, along with the Ka2, Ka7, Bergfalkes etc would still be valid trainers for this purpose and cost a fraction of their current bretheren.

 

 

But aviation is perhaps too often dominated by modern day expectancy. A sort of situation where you think that a two week course on learning to swim in the latest go faster swimwear will put you straight on the heels of the Olympic champions.

 

 

Performance will never substitute for Airmanship and personal skill. Those have to be learnt and then learn how to apply them. The machines themselves will give you the means of achieving but achievement of the individual is in the hands of the individual – not the machine. Make acquisition of those basic skills too expensive because of the machines ‘we should be flying’ and we ourselves are putting a lid on expansion in aviation.

 

 

Next time I WILL defect to the Red Army and cross the once Iron Curtain.