Martin Gregorie wrote:
Edward Winchester wrote:

I agree with Martin, but for the thermalling case,
I'd amend that to put the top rudder on the floor and
the stick in the opposite corner, at least at first.
You'll lose hundreds of feet in 10 seconds, and not
gain a ridiculous amount of airspeed.
I like that! Must add it to my mental store and/or try it with plenty
of height and an empty sky. I've had a very similar maneuver demoed in a
Puchacz but don't know what my Libelle would do.

Following up on that:

Yesterday I tried that in both the Puchacz and then in my Std. Libelle
and the answer as to whether its a good idea is "it depends".

In either gliders the descent rate didn't feel particularly rapid. I had
a logger running in the Libelle, which showed the descent rate to be
somewhere around 1000 ft/min., or 166 ft in 10 seconds - respectable
though hardly "hundreds of feet in 10 seconds".

Its easily controlled in the Puchacz, thanks to its large side area and
huge rudder: exit speed was essentially the same as entry speed and the
flight path during the descent was a gentle curve toward the side with
the canopy on it.

The Libelle is a different case. It hasn't enough side area or rudder
power to control your speed unless you also have some back stick and
that makes your descent path into a spiral rather than a gentle curve.
Although its a fairly controllable descent mode I don't think I'd use it
again in a Libelle.



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