How many here fly gliders too?

[kaz3g]

With that background Kaz, you have undersold yourself. You should be a master of that pussycat Auster with the bungee chord U/C. Nev

I was more than 30 years younger, Uncle Nev... was much easier then

 

kaz

 

 

[Garry Morgan]

I find gliding the most instering form of flying working out what the air is doing, I started out h/g went gliding back to h/g when I got married, u/l and gliding. I now have a sf 27self launch but is heavy in the back end, so now I am building a Touring motor glider 17m two seat , and next will be a 12m self launch which will be very easy to lift the rear end ( my back is not as good as it used to be) but will have a wing load of 28kg sq m, will be easy on fuel and will do lots of hrs. I have been to 15k in h/g and gliders and flights of 8 hrs+ and climbs that you would not believe, the air is an every intersting challenge.

 

 

[mothra]

Did a week at Waikerie 25 years ago. Loved the flying but never really mastered a stable approach and constantly butchered the flare, too hard and too high. Led to some truly ugly landings. In the end kept pouring my money into motorsport and didn't revisit gliding.

 

 

[Blueadventures]

I find gliding the most instering form of flying working out what the air is doing, I started out h/g went gliding back to h/g when I got married, u/l and gliding. I now have a sf 27self launch but is heavy in the back end, so now I am building a Touring motor glider 17m two seat , and next will be a 12m self launch which will be very easy to lift the rear end ( my back is not as good as it used to be) but will have a wing load of 28kg sq m, will be easy on fuel and will do lots of hrs. I have been to 15k in h/g and gliders and flights of 8 hrs+ and climbs that you would not believe, the air is an every intersting challenge.

Looking forward to hearing about the first flights. Any update images that you can post? When do you expect to fly her?

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

[facthunter]

Thruster to good glider . What a change Pud! From one extreme to the other in the aeronautical world. I was a mechanical nut case. If it didn't have an engine in it just tolerated it. I've woken up to myself lately. I flew a kookaburra somewhere last century and a Blanik. Metal rattly thing but it was a real glider. Like a sailboat VS a speedboat. Chalk and cheese. Nev

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep I still fly gliders. In fact I got into owning a Jabiru when the deal to buy a new Ventus got too expensive. There was sales tax on gliders then, and none on powered planes. Well the Jab (in kit form) plus a hangar (also in kit form) was less than the sales tax on the Ventus (the Ventus was not in kit form).

 

Well I really like the Jabiru and there are lots of days that suit flying it instead of the glider. I also fly a Libelle, which I fixed up from a write-off.

 

Some days flying a glider is pure magic. At 10,000 ft you can be 100 km from home and not need another thermal and you don't have any worries about the engine stopping. But you can't just go places and land there like you can in a Jabiru.

 

...Bruce

 

 

[winsor68]

How much does a Ventus cost Bruce? Seems to be a bloody expensive sport these days, at least when it comes to buying new Sailplanes. I have noticed you can still pick up some reasonably prices older sailplanes like Libele's... Yours isn't old GTX by any chance is it?

 

I would give up this power flying if only there was a club near me like a shot. Sailplane solo is on the top of my bucket list.

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I got cold feet on the Ventus when the total of the tape hit $150,000. But this included transport from Germany ( big bucks ) and $39,000 sales tax.

 

The sales tax was worked out as 26% on the total landed price. The bare hull price at the factory door was about $90,000 I think.

 

At this time the Jabiru was $36,000 for a complete SK kit including the engine and basic instruments.. I conveniently forget the other costs like the paint and radio.

 

My Libelle is GCY. Waikerie club bought the wreck for $500 which they stored for a few years, acquiring a canopy glazing and a dreadful old trailer, before selling the lot to me for $3000.

 

We had a great day last Wednesday, 14,000 ft cu bases with a final glide from the Murray back to Gawler. But there are only a few such days in a year.

 

... Bruce

 

 

[Guest L/D]

Haven't flown for a while, though everything from ASK13, IS28, IS28M2 with Ingo Renner, Blanik's, LS4, Hornet, Libelle, Cirrus, Discus, Discus2, Ventus2cm, SZD55, ASh25T, Nimbus3, LS7, Ls6, Ximango etc and the list goes on.

 

In the end it doesn't matter what aircraft you are in, each soaring flight will be a memory that is etched in for a lifetime as each one is unique.

 

 

[Patrick Normoyle]

Only when the engine stops, but I'd love to give it a go, the pure joy of soaring like an Eagle, what a rush.

 

 

[Garry Morgan]

There is another world of flying out there, I have 2.5 motor gliders no tows or waiting just fly when the conditions are right ,fly all day with no motor

 

 

[Lior]

Transitioning from an ultralight to a glider is great fun, just for the sake of being up there with a nice view rather than flying from place to place with any schedule. I took gliding lessons last year in a Grob Twin, and when the conditions are good, you feel that you can stay up for hours. It's nice to encounter pieces of straw at 4000 feet when the thermals are really powerful! I hope to continue gliding later on once personal circs permit.

 

Compared to owning an ultralight, being a member of a gliding club means less money spent on financing, but more hours spent on the ground to get others aloft, and more time to be with others who are like you. The logistics of cramming those sailplanes into the club hangar can be daunting at times!

 

 

[MrH]

................ The logistics of cramming those sailplanes into the club hangar can be daunting at times!

Your not wrong with that...

 

Photo taken at Narromine 1980

 

Cheers

 

H

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Wonderful photo. All those high-performance gliders! Is this the old hangar that was demolished? At the end of the day I used to be able to do the "hanger flight"; using momentum to roll the Blanic around the meandering taxiway right up to its door.

 

I started with gliding because it was more affordable than powered flight. AUF changed all that. (Thanks to Jabiru, among others) I dream of owning a sleek composite sailplane, but ultralights ended up far cheaper to own.

 

 

[paulh]

With the current debacle with RAAus and costs associated with modern UL aircraft I think I'll go give gliding a go sometime, I like the idea of flying just for the pure enjoyment rather than having to go somewhere - at least in a glider you don't care if the prop stops cause it ain't there!!

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Try this (experimental Blanik motor conversion, circa 1982 ). It needs the fatigue mod first, though.

 

 

[winsor68]

Try this (experimental Blanik motor conversion, circa 1982[ATTACH]23753[/ATTACH] ). It needs the fatigue mod first, though.

Was that the only one in Australia?

 

 

[cooperplace]

Now flying motorglider (Grob 109) at Murray Bridge Gliding Club

when do you guys fly? I fly a jabiru there most thursdays and there's never been a glider that I remember, for a year that I know of.

 

 

[Dafydd Llewellyn]

Was that the only one in Australia?

That one was done at Tocumwal, around 1982, by Bill Riley and Bert Perssons. It flew a total of about 250 hours, then was converted back to standard glider configuration. I'm planning to do something similar, with CH-GIW. Its MTOW was 575 Kg and it had a best L/D around 24:1 with the prop. feathered. Felt very much the same as a standard Blanik, with the prop feathered; the added weight gave improved penetration so you could hardly tell the difference. I had a double ignition failure (Rotax 505) test flying it, so I simply thermalled my way back to Tocumwal.

 

 

[Garry Morgan]

I have spend some time looking at a design for a self launch from two seat single and options. I have now decided on a single seat 18-22m 4 piece wing all glass and with no moulds, one cannot get away from carbon for spars with such high bending moments with a 80mm thick wing. a self launch 28hp motor L/D 45+ . Still refining things, its not like designing a power aircraft and will probably take another 12 months. cost of the build under 20k.

 

 

[paulh]

Thanks for the update Garry

 

(Your avatar seems a bit lightwing rather than a glider!)

 

 

[Mark11]

Bumped into my neighbour and said I'd been flying

 

- only to receive the reply that he's a glider pilot

 

I feel trumped

 

 

[Garry Morgan]

Not sure what you mean Paul (lightwing) Wing loading will be about 32-47 kg sq m and one of the cleanest lies around. Just the tail and fin I can save about 1.8 sq m from a Jantar to a more modern design. I have a fuse mold from my last glider which I can modify. it will use a steel fram for the U/C motor wing and carry it rear of the prop doors to keep all strength .It will use the cockpit air extractor to spot canopy leaks from braking up the boundry layer, and a tubo in the wings.

 

 

[paulh]

Sounds great Garry - what I meant by the Lightwing comment was that on my iPad your avatar ie picture beside your name on your forum posts showed as a picture of a Lightwing the same as another forumite its now back to how it showed before ie just the question mark - probably some odd temporary techno fault

 

The $20k build cost sounds amazing

 

By your comment about prop doors sounds like the motor will be retractable rather than folding prop

 

Keep at it, market research is not my thing but your concept of a low cost, self launch, efficient glider ( from an Australian company ) seems very attractive - safe handling and strength I would think would be very important selling points

 

 

[Garry Morgan]

In getting performance some handling in modern gliders is lacking a bit as they only make the control surface just big enough the rudder mainly, The Alpin is very bad we have. The Jantar 3 was a big improvement, The motor will fold back into the fuse, many people dont like it back there ,but you cannot get away from it. The one man rigging systems out now are very good to rig out of a trailor, over seas at a comp. they rig and de rig every day as in asiie we just tie them down for the week.

 

Building wings with out moulds is very easy the foam core 5mm 60kg sq m glass the inside surface as it will still bend and bond it over the wing. It can be sanded with a long strigth edge to the keep profile .lay the top layers of glass use a long strigth edge to squige the resin in and the same with the filler and a sanding board which you can bolt to a sander. There should not be much filler. the faom is hard and flat. the problem with the filler over time if shrinks at different rates with thickness. The skin is super strong and stiff, the gliders dont use ribs, but you see people sitting on the wings. (dont do it )