L 33 Solo Gliders

On Sun, 15 Mar 2020 15:05:48 -0700, uneekcowgirl wrote:

That PW5, now theres an ugly sailplane. I wish the Russia had won that
competition back in the day.

A certain French bull didn't thing one was ugly!

I've flown a PW-5 once off aero tow. Was OK, quite nice to fly but felt
slow and very light - a bit like a paper bag. I flew a Std Libelle after
that (my first flight in one) and much preferred it.

To put that in context, my first post-solo single-seat glider was an SZD
Junior, which I flew exclusively until I had my Silver. This was followed
by conversion to a Pegase (at Williams Soaring), followed by my club's
Pegase 90 and Discus B. I was XC rated in the Pegase, which I'd flown a
Regional in, and Discus before before flying the PW-5 and Libelle in NZ
during a visit.

I was warned in the preflight briefing for the PW-5 that they can easily
PIO on aero tow launches because too much back stick at the start will
make them pop off the ground too early and steeply. Then an instinctive
sudden push on the stick will make them hit the floor nosewheel first,
and that this is amplified by the short wheelbase converting the nosewheel
hit followed immediately by a mainwheel bounce into an even steeper pitch-
up. That said I did pick the nose up gently but fairly early and found it
easy to hold that attitude until it lifted off. After that the tow was
quite normal.

Bringing things up to date, I love my Libelle, which gets winched and
aero towed, and have no plans to sell it any time soon, but I would like
to fly a 1-26 to see how it goes. That sports canopy sounds like fun in
summer.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org