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Old July 12th 16, 08:58 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Dick Johnson methodology for measuring glider performance

The problem with the Idaflieg/DLR measurements is that they are not simply made available to the larger public.

There seems to be a kind of secrecy agreement between the Akafliegs/Idaflieg and the (mainly German) sailplane manufacturers to keep the results under wraps for a number of years (at least two, if my information is correct), and even then, you won't find them simply in the soaring press, you'll have to ask them to the Idaflieg...

The German (and other) manufacturers no longer publish the polars of new sailplanes in the flight manual either (fear of being proven too optimistic?).. So if you want to calibrate a flight computer, you have to guess what the true polar might be.

That's why, however imperfect, the Johnson measurements have been widely disseminated in the past. They were readily available: as soon as they were published in Soaring, they were translated and published in the international soaring press... much to the chagrin of most manufacturers, because they usually were worse than the claimed values (yes, manufacturers used to put an "official" polar in the flight manual in the old days!).