Roger wrote:
I sure am impressed with DG as a company! Many safety products, GREAT
web site, newsletters...etc. No, I do not own a DG glider, nor do I
have one on order. However, as soon as they make a competive glider
that I fit into (i.e., LS 10 with new cockpit I will buy it!). I just
wish the other manufacturers would make NOAH's, something to keep
spoilers from opening, and stall warning like DG does.

Schleicher does some nice things, too:

Starting with the ASW 27, the caps on unlocked spoilers tip up in back,
preventing the airflow from sucking open the spoilers.

They lead the way to safer cockpit construction, and still have a more
crash resistant cockpit than the DG models. For me, that is more
important than the better visibility the lower sidewalls of the DG
provide, and the availability of the NOAH system. My belief is I will be
more likely to crash into the ground than have a mid-air collision where
G loads pin me inside the glider, or to avoid the collision because of
the better visibility.

Ever since the ASW 20, their flapped gliders have had a landing flap
position that puts the flaps at 40 degrees positive, while raisig the
ailerons to a slight negative angle. This gives a high drag, high lift
configuration with no tendency to stall the tips, allowing a steeper,
slower approach and landing than gliders where the landing flap is more
like 20 degrees.

I do like the idea of DG's stall warning, and hope owners with it will
report on it's usefulness. Their web site is very good, and I visit it
more often than Schleicher's.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org