Gus,

I thought I ought to chime in on this one even though I have made many
posts about the SparrowHawk. I am a friend of Greg Cole’s and
have helped out with the SparrowHawk project for a number of years and
did the first flights on the prototype and am its current owner.

As everyone else has mentioned, the SparrowHawk is truly a delight to
fly. The air feel is fantastic. I let a friend fly mine the other
day and he stayed up for an hour and a half even though I was an idiot
and didn’t give it to him with fully charged batteries. They
died 5 minutes into his flight. As all I have for rate of climb and
altimeter is a Garmin GPSMAP 76S, he only had an airspeed indicator!
That said, there is no way I could have done that. He is a far more
experienced glider pilot than I am and has lots of hang glider
experience too. One thing I have learned is that hang glider and
former hang glider pilots are far better at “reading” the
air than most sailplane pilots. Maybe it’s all that flying
without all the fancy electronics. You’re comment about Gary
Osoba is absolutely correct and he definitely fits this category too.

With regards to comfort level, my friend is +6'and 220 pounds. He was
fine.

The light weight pays many dividends that are out of proportion to
what they would seem they should. Yes it is extremely easy to put
together and push around. It is even “more easier” than
heavy gliders when conditions aren’t helping you because you
have strength left over to fight the wind. If you accidentally have
the fuselage tip over, fall off the ramp and bounce off the concrete
(had that happen trying to set up someone else’s trailer for the
SparrowHawk), the low mass combined with very strong materials mean
that no damage occurs. You can change a tire in 5 minutes. Just have
someone pick up the wing and pull out the bolt and slip the new one
in. And the spare tire and wheel assembly only cost about $30. (Mine
is 2 years old now so I am in no way implying that you have to change
tires often.)

I have had the fantastic experience of flying with a lot of different
glider types over the last couple of years too. The typical comment
of other pilots is, “I can’t believe that thing is still
with me!”, or “I never got above him and I never got away
from him.” As I understand it, some of the other racers were
saying the same thing at the standard class nationals last year when
David Stevenson was flying the SparrowHawk. People who fly the plane
seem to forget to mention the performance because in that regard it is
just another sailplane. Guys like Gary can fly circles around me with
his Woodstock, but for average guys, you can fly with your buddies in
your SparrowHawk.

That fact combined with how easy the SparrowHawk is to live with on
the ground make it the only glider I would want to own. Sure, there
are others I would like to fly (I’d like to fly them all!). The
very low “hassle factor” of the SparrowHawk combined with
good performance and a very high “fun to fly” factor
should put it on the top of anyone’s list if they are
considering buying a glider.

Happy flying,
Doug Taylor


Ok you prepeg carbon fiber flying guys, lets hear from you! Everybody
else has chimed in but we have heard from very few actual owners of
the SparrowHawk.

Does is really perform, handle, assemble easily, fit you comfortably,
tow easily, thermal well, and impress you?

Gary Osaba could set a world record in a glider on fire, I would like
to hear from the guys who own one (SparrowHawk) that I don't know.

Gus