Down Memory Lane - From the Log Books #9

[Guest TOSGcentral]

Memory Lane #9

 

 

 

And so this series comes to Oz! I want to give a bit of a different spin to this one from different eyes way back then.

 

 

Despite the banter that goes on, the deadly rivalry in sport etc etc. Australian people are actually held in the greatest esteem by the majority of the world for what they are. They have (and many still do have) a very practical, no-nonsense approach to life and living – yet are geographically remote. But yet again so many died on distant world battlefields for wars that were not really theirs.

 

 

When I came to Oz I was already married to an Aussie lass and had acquired some reputation in professional recreational flying. All of that counted for naught because basically I was just another Pom and if I wanted to get anywhere then I had to cut it from the ground up and prove myself – in my case as a pilot, instructor, manager and systems developer – as well as primarily an OK guy.

 

 

The people who employed me were couth residents of Melbourne (my wife comes from Sydney so that was a potential hassle to start with!). The people I was working with were hard bitten country Aussies. That period was a major learning phase of my life that I appeared to have come out of with many friends and few enemies.

 

 

So I came to the land of Kangaroos, Wallabies and Kookaburras – and in gliding that was what I faced – well mainly Kookaburras but let not us spoil a passable story line!

 

 

First a bit more gliding history because Australia is far from bereft in that area.

 

 

The Grunau Baby is one of the most famous gliders (and probably the most prolific) in the world. The name stems from the area in which the factory was located that first designed and built it and loosely translated Grunau means ‘Greenfields’ or ‘Green world’ etc – that sort of thing anyway. This was in the Eastern portion of Germany and the factory was owned by the Schneider family – an outfit with already a lot of gliding pioneering runs on the board.

 

 

I do not know what else they built. Possibly the Grunau was such a success that they could not build enough for the newly emerging Luftwaffe who wanted them as trainers to go with the Kranich two seater.

 

 

After the partitioning of Europe at the end of WW2 the factory was firmly in the Eastern Bloc of Germany and this was not acceptable to the factory owners. An offer was made for the family to translate to Australia and set up a new factory. This was done and Oz got its first full time support manufacturer.

 

 

It was interesting that while the rest of the world was chasing Germany’s rocket and jet scientists Australia chased a gliding manufacturer – eminently sensible!

 

 

Production got going in the early 1950s with the Kangaroo and Kookaburra two seaters. I am a little uncertain in this area because I flew a Wallaby and I am not sure if the Kangaroo and Wallaby were the same type under different names or some kind of refinement in type. Perhaps other readers can fill in the gaps for me.

 

 

A range of single seaters was also produced amongst which was the Grunau 4 (The Grunau 1, 2, 2b and 3 having been produced in Germany) so the family preserved a type lineage with its own history – but more on those later in this series.

 

 

While the type development persisted with conventional wooden machines, and initially on very traditional lines, steadily the factory introduced a distinctly Australian element to design in order to cater for the strong Oz soaring conditions.

 

 

This was most reflected in the Kookaburra (which simply would not have survived in European operation other than as a curiosity) and also in the single seat Super Arrow and Boomerangs which were larger and heavier than their European parallels such as the Ka6.

 

 

ES49 Wallaby. I have a passion for historic aircraft and obviously a strong interest in Australian types – especially when the rest of the world has to come to Australia to even see them let alone fly them. So I was delighted to bump into a Wallaby because there were never many of them.

 

 

Kay and I were on holiday, visiting Mike Valentine at Gawler when the Wallaby turned up. It was in the charge of a young instructor and was owned by the Scout movement – doing a stirling job of getting young people some flying experience. Mike introduced me to break the ice as it were and see if I could be fitted in one evening just before close of play..

 

 

This became one of my most treasured moments ever in gliding! The young guy looked me over and the first thing he said was “Have you ever flown ‘wood’â€. Mike departed in a hurry and at a suitable distance folded up, bawling with laughter, which discomforted the instructor who was not sure exactly what he had said to cause this.

 

 

In my book he had asked exactly the right question! He had a high drag, low interia, poor performance two seater standing in a field full of ‘plastic fantastics’ and wanted to keep his aircraft and flight safe. I admired him greatly for doing this.

 

 

The Wallaby is an all-wood, single strutted, high wing, tandem two seater. I flew it from the front so cannot comment about the rear seat. But visibility appeared to be better than say a Ka7 or Blanik and the cockpits were roomy enough with the controls coming to hand easily.

 

 

Anyway we got in and had an aerotow followed by a short soar in an evening thermal and the whole thing was just a very pleasant traditional gliding session that took me back to previous times. I have never seen another example of the type since – maybe it was the last one left.

 

 

I liked the Wallaby. It was an unremarkable glider – just a very predictable trainer that did what you wanted but had its own character and ambience. In it’s day it would have really filled the bill for the job intended and doubtless had introduced hundreds of people to soaring and flying gliders.

 

 

ES53 Mk4 Kookaburra. The Kooka is THE iconic Oz training glider and I was very keen on getting to know the type. I certainly got my wish as the training fleet at my first job in Oz consisted of four of the damn things backed up with a Blanik as an advanced trainer plus a T61A Falke motor glider (which was the prime reason I had been employed).

 

 

My intended love affair with the Kooka evaporated in less than two minutes of my first meeting with one! It was much smaller than I had imagined. At less than 12 metres wing span, very solidly built, looking heavy and big airbrakes – I could see it was a trainer that would need careful watching when near the ground.

 

 

It has a high wing and staggered side by side seating with a fixed unsprung single main wheel and a main skid. It was similar in size to the Ka4s that I was well used to and with the same upward and rearward hinging canopy. But at least you were right on top of the student in the Kooka so could control any attempts to open the canopy at inappropriate times.

 

 

My general enthusiasm went down several pegs further when I looked inside the cockpit. The student’s seating was rudimentary but at least it was there. The back ‘seat’ was just a bare wooden box with a set of four point harness on one side and a flat plywood floor with a second set of rudder pedals and stick.

 

 

Now fair dinkum! If you are going to work all day in an aircraft then, without being too finicky, you do expect to have somewhere to sit other than on a bare plywood floor!

 

 

Actually some provision had been created. The club had made four square fibre glass mouldings that were stamped for posterity with the imprint of Peter Singleton’s bum. He had gamely sat in each when they were still wet then they had hardened to the ‘mould’. They were loose and not screwed down but the straps kept the whole arrangement more or less in place once you were in and sorted out.

 

 

Peter was an Ansett airline pilot on DC9s and was irrepressible. A somewhat earthy go-getter he did my first Kooka check ride. He was a great guy and sadly died in the Ash Wednesday fires along with the rest of the volunteer fire crew he was part of.

 

 

But in running my eyes over the Kooka one thing stood out. These small, high wing loading little trainers always span well and as I was to find out the Kooka was the best example in captivity. I may be a bit caustic about the Kooka but it is the best glider trainer for spinning that I have worked in – perhaps too good because there was little lingering between the stall and the developed spin with the glider going very steep and rotating rapidly. It happened fast and it could happen in what may be considered unusual circumstances as the following two little tales relate.

 

 

Do you imagine you can get into a spin on aerotow? You can in a Kooka!

 

 

One of our tug pilots specialised in flying the Pawnees very slowly when towing Kookas – too slowly. I had warned him that while the majority of the tow was easier for the student we were starting to have problems coming up through the slipstream to high tow for release.

 

 

One day it did not work. The increased angle of attack to get into High Tow stalled us out and the rotating slip stream from the tug span us instantly. We were still hooked up!

 

 

I got rid of the rope fast enough to avoid problems for the tug but we still went around half a turn before recovery.

 

 

On another occasion it was just a routine spin training flight after a bit of a soar with plenty of height to loose. The student was going well and we had done a couple of full spins with no dramas. Even though we were getting a bit on the low side (1500’ agl) there was time for another half turn to round things off well.

 

 

I ordered recovery and the student complied but did not relax the back pressure on the stick which you HAVE to do on the Kooka. I have seen nothing like it before or since. The Kooka stopped spinning to the right and with no attitude change instantly commenced spinning to the left.

 

 

It was very disorientating and the student totally lost the plot (which was reasonable enough). We came around the bottom at 600’ agl and that was far too close for comfort in a Kooka – in a spin they come out of the sky like a sack of sand. I had just enough height left to get back to the airfield and over the nearest boundary fence so at least we avoided a trailer retrieve from a paddock – not something you relish as the Kooka has a single piece wing that is a bit of a gut buster to lift on and off.

 

 

The Kooka also marked the close of my professional gliding career. I was eventually caught by the very thing that I had noticed first up – high wing loading and big airbrakes.

 

 

A student had done an immaculate circuit and I had been flying with him all week. I was probably a bit too relaxed as it was the last flight of the day. After a faultless round out into the hold off he hit the front stop with the stick at approach speed and yanked the brakes fully out.

 

 

The Kooka shrugged off the impact undamaged. My spine right above the mainwheel impact point got another half dozen cracked vertebrae, a wave in it and I was concussed. The quacks told me to give up flying for a living or learn how to fly a wheelchair! I didn’t give up of course but slipped back into club instructing and then eventually back into full time flying in ultralights.

 

 

My only regret with the Kooka was that I never flew the last version. This had an expanded wing span (nearly 15 metres) and consequently became a three piece wing but otherwise looked very similar. I really wanted to see if there was any improvement.

 

 

Apart from spinning I do not rate the Kooka highly at all. It was optimised for strong Oz soaring conditions but was of a terrible performance when the sky was non-soarable.

 

 

For club, especially commercial course work, you need a bit of ‘floatability’ in the trainers as you need lots of circuits but some air time as well. The Kooka could not do this. In non soaring conditions it was back on the ground within 10 minutes or less from a 2000’ aerotow – just not economic let alone real training value – while a Ka7 or ASK13 would give you nearly 20 minutes and you could get other work done as well.

 

 

Next. I want to mull this over a bit. Schneider continued production but missed an entire glider generation – jumping from the Kooka to the glass ES63 Platypus. In consequence the entire Oz gliding movement also missed out on that same generation and was only able to patch it up with imports, plus rely so heavily on the Blanik which actually did great service in plugging the hole. To some extent the clubs themselves also assisted in creating the gap.

 

 

I will probably devote an entire episode to this point. Meantime I have to decide if I should finish the two seaters by moving into the plastic fantastic area or start on the single seaters.

 

 

[Guest coaltrain]

Still enjoying the read! I'd like to hear what you have to say about all the two seaters before moving onto the 'hot' singleseaters. :)

 

edit: after reading your interim post - I think I'd like to hear about the old single seaters before moving into the plastic now. . . .