Exadios

For those of you who are interested XCSoar has released version 6.3_alpha1. I have only tried the Windows desktop edition so far - seems to work OK.

A couple of safety articles.

Yeah, it wasn't that good a day. I spoke with Greg Beecroft after he came back from the set task on the day. He gave it away after turning at Grass Valley for the leg to Shackleton as the thermals were very variable. So he only did one leg, and, as you would know, Greg is no slouch in the gliding department!! I think he was the only one to even make the first leg. There was one outlanding and another pilot came very close before jagging some lift.Pud

It was only a 6500' day and it seemed impossible to center the thermals. A number of times I had my wing lifted so strongly that I had to use full airleron and rudder to counter act it but when I turned into it there was nothing there! Weird.

After reading this thread I thought I'd give it a go. So, I went to Beverley today at the invitation of my fried Stefan who is an instructor with the Beverley Soaring Society to do a TIF. I had a great time but had to cut the flight short because I was getting motion sickness - buggar!! The glider is so much different to flying a Thruster it ain't funny!! I even had trouble keeping the glider balanced - watch the string, watch the string. Glide ratio is just a little better than my Thruster too:augie:Pud

My point is that it was not a typical day - big time "stipple". So your motion sickness may have been a result of the day. Give it another try on a better day. Learning to fly a glider has a lot to offer a power pilot in that it teaches skills that are usefull to powered flight.

Hi Maj.I went for a TIF in a 'Demona H36' motor glider about three weeks ago out of Moura. What an experience, hit our first thermal on climb out about 400mtrs from liftoff, radio call and straight into a tight bank, (eng. still running but back to idle) the ASI or what they call the 'varier meter' (spelling)? which reads meters per second and it was showing 4mtr/sec up, first surprise was the lift we were getting at a bank angle of about 45*, he explained how to follow and stay in a thermal. Lost that one at 2500ft. so flew west towards a line of cloud. Hit a big load of lift over some tiger country (I was looking at the edge of the timber and mentally calculating the distance for my lightwing) when Steve said "this is a good one, we'll give it a go". so shut the engine down and thermald around there for one hour and ten minutes, Steve said we were in the right one because there was two wedges above us.

Took us over 1/2hr. to fly back to Moura. Shut the engine off again at 3000ft. and about 20klm. from the strip, had to pull the brakes on in the base leg or we would of over shot by a mile. Man, what an experience. I'm going to carry on with it. then I hopped in the trusty old lightwing and flew home, just that one flight has given me a different way of looking at flying and the clouds.

 

Cheers Davo.

The Dimona, like other similar power gliders, necessarily are compromised in therms of their performance as gliders. Compared to a twin such as a DG500 or DG1000 for instance a Dimona would be considered very much sub par.

I was speaking to a pilot who owns a couple of Grob G109s (which is of similar appearance and performance to the Dimona) and we wondered why more people did not buy these sort of aircraft over some of the SLAs. They are invariably well built, and for about the same money you get a fine touring aircraft which can also glide. And, because its "VH" registered, they can be snuck into airports that will not usually accept SLA aircraft.

Its in the syllabus. To be issued a certificate you must demonstrate sideslipping. Aswel as a slipping turn through 90 deg's. If you havn't been taught or are not confident in this manoeuvre grab your instructor and go and learn it. Its could be a lifesaving skill. Highwings generally slip better then lowings and some aircraft shouldn't be slipped under certain circumstances, so read the POH and talk to an instructor. It is not a dangerous manoeuvre, but care should be taken. The controls are crossed but it is in an ANTI-SPIN configuration.Another consideration is the IAS may change during a slip. This is due to a few factors and depends on type, but in aircraft with pitot tubes a long way out on the wing the airflow into the tube has to travel around a corner and experiences less dynamic pressure, so the tendancy is for the IAS to over read. In some jabirus I have seen it read 6-8 kts in error.

Cheers

 

Fly safe

Thanks Don. I thought that maybe the tug pilot pulled the power after the glider started going up and down during the take off.

If there had been some sort of PIO, or other problem with the glider, the correct proceedure would be for the tug pilot to pull the release (the glider pilot should also pull the release) and keep going to clear the runway. The only time that the maneuver in this video is performed is when the tug fails.

A video of a tug incident - correctly handled.

Article here.

Now has a page at SoaringSpot.

To right, get someone who doesn't know how to start one and it's amusing though....

Roll on fuel injected engines.

Thanks. Looks like a nice spot to have a competition.

Where do I put the knot?kaz

Another thing...Further down it says a good position for the waste tube exit is on the bottom of the gear door fairing... imagine if you ripped the fairing off on landing with that attached to your wedding tackle!!!!!

Further down in the article it talks about using a tube from inside the cockpit (snigger) to go in... Talks about having to get the size and shape of the tube just right to provide the correct amount of suction....!!! Get that wrong and you are either going to have the best flight of your life or loose it....

"Involuntary Manslaughter"Isn't the definition of Manslaughter that the death is involuntary?

 

Perhaps his defense should be "There's no such thing as Voluntary Manslaughter".

So... The secret is out. Its says in the article you are gonna need to do some shaving down below... Who would have guessed it... All those kinky glider pilots...

OK, Bad title - kinda.But I don't know how better to attract people to the thread and (maybe) get some serious discussion going.

 

Scenario:

 

You are going on a Cross Country trip. You've planned it, weather good, fuel stops at good places.

 

A couple of long legs between airports, but nothing to worry about.

 

Now, to the question/problem:

 

You are off, everything is good. About an hour into the flight and "in the middle of no-where" you need to go!

 

I'm not talking about, rumble rumble. I may need to go in about 30 minutes.

 

You need to go NOW! Say maybe 3 minutes at the outside.

 

I know it is part of planning allowing for these kind of things, but "$hit happens" as it were.

 

Sometimes you can't pick when this sort of thing is going to happen. So in a moment of curiossity, I was seriously wondering:

 

What would you do?

 

Obviously land and deal with the problem, but I mean at the actual time it happens.

 

Yeah, ok, not nice to think about. But seriously, it can happen - though I don't think I would wish it on anyone.

 

Thoughts?

The Multiclass Nationals are starting today. See the Web site. From the start the location of the event has been moved to Tocumwal (where ever that is).

Okay, your GPS outputs its data into a device that is hooked up to a transmitter that transmits your callsign and GPS location at (say) 2 minute intervals using standard AX25 packet protocol. Receivers in other planes pickup the transmission and a device decodes the packet of data and displays on a map (on an ipad or similar device) the location of that particular plane. The idea is not original, us Ham radio operators have used packet position reporting for yonks. So, all you modern electronics wizards that are into FPGAs and stuff, stop interfering with the girls, put down your drinks and start working on it. I'll keep the coffee coming and provide the pizza. If the display software was designed well, it could be used like TCAS and warn the pilot of possible conflict, although I haven't included altitude in my idea (starts to get expensive).