Larry Dighera LDighera wrote:

I've some experience with the Schweizer 1-26.
It had an L/D of 30 IIRC.

L/D on the 1-26 is 23:1, same as the Schweizer 2-33 (2-place).

Do you know the L/D of the 1-36?

31:1

It is a contest between the pilot and mother
nature. The idea is to spend more time in rising
air than sinking air, and thus gain and sustain
altitude. The pilot must mentally visualize the
movements of the air masses in his vicinity,
due to convective and orographic vertical
displacement, solely through interpreting
instrument indications and seat-of-the-pants cues.

Great description!

BTW, on good days during thermal season, it is possible to climb w/o banking in
that extreme or needing a parachute. I climbed to 11K feet this summer in a
1-26 from a 2000-ft tow and was never banked more than 30 degrees ... and the
lift was still strong enough I could have continued, but didn't have oxygen.
Sometimes exposing more of the sailplane surface to the lift (shallow bank)
works as well or better, if you can do that and stay in the thermal ... depends
on the thermal(s) and you don't know until you get in it. Sometimes you fly
right out of it a few times before you figure out where you need to make your
circles.

Very, very fun.

--Shirley