cooperplace Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 G103 glider, it has adjustable rudder pedals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tuncks Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 And airbrakes, so you can get real sloppy on your circuit heights. You can fix it all on finals with those brakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA. Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I am surprised no Jab basher has come along and said, "There is no difference, they both land without a running engine." (PS I like Jabs.) 1 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old man emu Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I am surprised no Jab basher has come along and said, "There is no difference, they both land without a running engine." The title of the thread sure encourages someone to make that comment - in jest of course! OME 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperplace Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 And airbrakes, so you can get real sloppy on your circuit heights. You can fix it all on finals with those brakes. yes, love those airbrakes. Today there was lift everywhere. It zoomed to 7000' and didn't want to descend. Eventually used the air brakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezzaP Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 The Grob 103 is a nice glider to fly. I recently did a 150km silver C distance and height gain in one. Welcome to the glider clan and I hope you enjoy the challenge. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperplace Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 yes, it's extremely enjoyable and I intend to keep at it. The 103 seems very nice in many ways. Also has benign stall characteristics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ozzie Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Did my first glider flight in a Blanik at Corowa in the Seventies when the DC3 CANobus broke down and jumping stopped for the day. Winch launch, wooohooo, and seemed to stay up for ages. Coming in to land started to turn base and the instructor said not yet too close and continued downwind and started to turn again same response and same again. When we did end up on final could hardly see the runway obviously much better glide than my old Condor dragalight and still used the airbrakes to kill height. Have had a few more flights over the years some, at Temora. Would have loved to do many more but so expensive. The Lazair was a good substitute. Many hours of happy soaring flights with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Get into a really good thermal, and feel the Hand of God pushing your bum upwards - until you've experienced it, you can't believe how much energy there is in a strong thermal. I've seen nearly 1,000 fpm climb, starting at around 1500 feet and lasting until the top of the canopy was brushing the bottom of the cloud at 7,800 and the concave at the top of the cloud was maybe 100 feet lower - then rolling out on heading, level wings, set trim for speed, and hold everything rigid while I flew out of the cloud. On the outside of the cloud, the downwash cost me nearly 200 feet, but I was doing over 100 kts and recovered nearly 100 feet of that. A Libelle H-201.. the wings are right off your shoulders and it's as close to being Jonathon Livingstone Seagull as you can get. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperplace Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 yep this was amazing, nearly 1000ft/min climb, if my arithmetic is correct. In the Grob it was saying 3-5m/s. I couldn't believe that we could fly so far and so high without burning petrol. We were up for 70 min but could have stayed up for hours. Loved it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scre80 Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 yep this was amazing, nearly 1000ft/min climb, if my arithmetic is correct. In the Grob it was saying 3-5m/s. I couldn't believe that we could fly so far and so high without burning petrol. We were up for 70 min but could have stayed up for hours. Loved it. Where are you flying from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 yep this was amazing, nearly 1000ft/min climb, if my arithmetic is correct. In the Grob it was saying 3-5m/s. I couldn't believe that we could fly so far and so high without burning petrol. We were up for 70 min but could have stayed up for hours. Loved it. Coop - have you looked at the world's records for gliders? Among the current FAI records are: free distance of 2256.9 km; absolute altitude: 15,460m ( or 15.46 km...), speed over and 'out and return' flight of 2000km: 152.5 km/h; duration: 56 hours, 15 minutes. Seriously - RAA-class aircraft, by comparison with a high-performance glider on a good weather day, are tinnies by comparison with Comanche, or Wild Oats... ( and like tinnies, they will get you from A to B even when the wind ISN'T blowing - let's not forget that). Our RAA-class aircraft are for getting us there; gliders are for flying... The Twin Astirs are generally regarded as a bit of a barge, in glider terms; if you really enjoyed one, then you'd be blown away by a flying a high-performance single-seater. Anything with much more than about 1:44 glide ratio is, in practical terms, an 'over the horizon' machine - in still air, you can set out on the final glide for home for a site you simply cannot see. Pretty much my favorite time in a glider was the 'last flight of the day' - when the air has gone to dead still, the ground is in lengthening shadows, you are meandering for the airfield at a gentle pace and even the wind noise around the canopy is almost dead quiet and the atmosphere after a stinking hot, bumpy day feels like golden syrup. You are just 'up there', gliding along.. It would be hard to feel more at peace with the universe than if one were in a warm bath, with a decent Armagnac and a Romeo et Juiletta after a fine meal of Duc a L'orange and a potted stilton in port for afters... having had a hard day racing the Huskies.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperplace Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 yeah, the records are amazing. People have flown some very impressive distances around here, at Waikerie for example. I flew from Gawler. The G103 seems fine for me, as an early trainee. I know the glide ratio is bettered by a lot of other gliders, but it sure as hell beats the jabiru! For now the plan is just to go solo in a glider. Circuit and landing techniques are very different. Also, glider pilots don't seem to mind getting up close to other gliders. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezzaP Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 The Grob 103 Twin II is a little different to the Twin Astir (otherwise known as the concrete swan). The Twin Astir has very heavy controls and I struggled with it for a few hours one afternoon however the wing profile apparently has some advantages for cross country flights. I'm not interested in finding out. In contrast, the Twin II has light controls and a reported 36:1 glide ration one up and is quite pleasant to fly from my experience. The proximity to other aircraft takes a little getting used to. I remember on the early flights thinking we were awful close to to the tow plane (while still on tow!) and I still get edgy whenever there are more than a couple of us in a thermal but I have to learn how to manage it better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keenaviator Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 yep this was amazing, nearly 1000ft/min climb, if my arithmetic is correct. In the Grob it was saying 3-5m/s. I couldn't believe that we could fly so far and so high without burning petrol. We were up for 70 min but could have stayed up for hours. Loved it. This is gliding - Mount Broughton to Mooroopna. 2 hours 35 minutes. No fuel used. Foot launched and landed. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgpete Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 This is gliding - Mount Broughton to Mooroopna. 2 hours 35 minutes. No fuel used. Foot launched and landed.[ATTACH=full]40646[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]40648[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]40649[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]40650[/ATTACH] nice one! - even for a Niviuk pilot! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ozzie Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Have done some PG flying bit of coastal here and have spent some time in Monte Grappa (Bassano) in Italy flying in the Alps. Gets pretty crowded with every man and his dog flying, interesting sharing thermals with PGs, hang gliders and gliders all at once. Was looking at Flight Radar24 yesterday and noticed a couple of gliders that were heading back to what looked like Tocamwal or Corowa from an out and back to almost Wagga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyer Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 I had my one and only lot of winch training in a twin astir. quite a nice aircraft to fly I thought. I completed a 179km silver badge distance/height flight last week in a single seat Grob Astir CS77. photo is of the Astir sitting on the runway at Finley a few weeks ago when I outlanded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDQDI Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Bruno Vassel on YouTube has some interesting gliding videos on his channel, and the ones I have seen so far have no dodgy music and just a casual pleasant commentary. This vid seems to be a few highlights but check his channel out if you like gliding vids. (I have no affiliation with him, I've just enjoyed some of his videos!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyer Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 I've been following Bruno for some time now. He certainly captures some beautiful scenery from the mountains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperplace Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 yes, I want to do more gliding. Powered flight on cool days, gliding on hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 For a bit of an eye-opener on just how different the level of performance between a good glider and an average LSA with no power is, have a look at this cable-break video: Skip to 2.30 and kill the music.. Given the lengthy discussions of other threads re EFATO and turn-backs, (a cable break is the glider equivalent of an instantaneous EFATO in a very steep climb-out) a few things are worth noting. The young pilot should have had his hand on the release knob (this was a practice cable-break initiated by the instructor, as you can see when the yellow cable-release handle pulls back sharply twice), and just by happenstance, at just above 400 feet which is generally accepted as the minimum decision height for a turn-back - if you have 400 feet and 50 kts. with flight stabilised in positive G, for a decent glider you can execute a turn-back in calm conditions. BUT you MUST get rid of the cable instantly. That these were ideal conditions: note the wind turbines NOT turning Other than that, this is copybook: stick instantly full forward, hold until well nose-down, ease back (pause at 3:14 and note just how much nose-down attitude as he starts to pull back on the stick - and he has his hand on the brake lever in case of too much speed gain) and regain full positive G BEFORE any attempt is made to turn. You can see that this is the sequence from the shoulder-strap loose end, that floats up under negative G on the push-over, then settles back down as the nose is gently lifted to hold the speed. Then fairly gentle and well co-ordinated turns but a tight circuit that ends up with more than adequate height for final - he's pulling the brakes before the threshold. Damn nice job by the young pilot - note he even taps the altimeter to ensure it is registering correctly on downwind, and has already set trim for circuit speed before that ( 3:21).. And - for the STOL devotees - eat you hearts out if the acceleration you get when releasing the brakes doesn't flick the loose end of your shoulder strap back over your shoulder (check out from about 2:56) and you are at 400 feet 14 seconds later.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyer Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 couple of things... keep your hand close to the release knob, not on it. This'll save an inadvertent release should, (read when), you hit a decent size bump 300 ft is the recognised height for a modified circuit in a glider. its almost the equivalent of 1000 ft in a light aircraft. average speed for winch launch is around 55-60 knots depending on the winch capabilities general speed for final approach is 60 knots turn backs from 400 ft like this one are quite uneventful in a glider. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Did about 296k of a 300K attempt out of Leeton in a CS ( not CS77); didn't like it much, I preferred the Boomerang!. The CS just didn't have penetration; it climbed well but you lost gobs of height chasing the next cloud. The Is28 was really not much to get excited about, a Blanik is generally nicer. The IS29D2 was SWEET. A Libelle H201b even nicer, other than for the lack of reflex cruise flap. A race-prepared Hornet, Christmas on a twig. We were taught to keep our fingers on the release knob for winch launch and our elbow on the cockpit side to keep from having the bumps joggle the arm; a properly adjusted TOST release requires a firm pull. I haven't winch-launched in other than Blaniks, but for a Blanik, the minimum modified circuit decision parameters are 400 feet AND 50 kts established. Blanik brakes are strong, and I've landed from cable breaks straight ahead from 400 with a split-Rse S-turn and full brakes down to the deck, and a modified circuit from 600(ish), very comfortably. Headwind component makes a significant difference to a decision to go the modified circuit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyer Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 the IS28 is a good old training tank but certainly not an exciting one unless spinning. Tried a Blanik once and once only. Didn't do it for me. I always thought it a good idea to hold onto the release until I damn near auto released after hitting a cracker of a thermal one day. Ingo got into my ear about covering but not on the release. I currently have the option of an ASW15B or a Astir CS77. My shoulders don't fit the ASW very well and the Astir is big enough to throw a party in. The Astir certainly climbs ok but I agree with the lack of penetration. Jumped into a Libelle one day and jumped straight back out. Damn shoulders don't fit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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