IGC 13.5m class discussion

I support the creation of the new 13.5 meter class. *In the past 11
summers I have flown a glider with less than a 13.5 meter span more
than 1200 hours and 30, 000 miles cross country. *Having been involved
in soaring off and on for over fifty years, I have also flown gliders
with spans of 15 to 19 meters about the same amount of time and miles.

There some pretty neat things about short wing gliders. *They tend to
be lighter and easier to rig than larger gliders. *This is nice for
older flyers and their older helpers. Just picking up the tail of many
of our 30 year gliders to put on a tail dolly can result in a hernia
for a 63 year old flyer. Moving the lighter gliders around on the
ground is easier. *For example getting a PW-5 or Sparrow Hawk off of a
busy GA airport runway is a snap. *Experienced Sparrow Hawk pilots one
man rig without a *800 dollar one man rigger.

Short wings increase the number of safe land out places. *I have
landed the short wings in about ten places that would have totaled a
15 or 18 meter glider. *The lower landing energy and speed of a
lighter glider is also a plus.

To me all gliders are pretty slow moving. *The sensations in small or
large gliders are about the same, the main difference is the speed on
the score sheet. *We all seem to try to return to our starting place
at the end of the day anyway.

I left soaring in 1978. *I had a Standard Libelle which I loved but
was not (in my mind) competitive. *I decided to do something different
and started racing sail boats. *I noticed that the less expensive and
smaller the boat the more fun and comradship in the fleet. *I do not
know why that is the case, but that is my opinion. *In soaring the
last ten years, it seems to me that the people really having the most
fun are the 1-26 ers.

I do not see that continuing to have a place for short wing gliders to
race and set records really takes anything away from any other class.
I think it is especialy neat that the class is being opened up gliders
other than the PW-5. *There are seveal really neat gliders that will
be able to fly in the 13.5 meter class. *Think of all the time,
effort, and money that has been spent designing and building these
gliders.

If you have not tried it, don't ____ *_____ __.

Bill Snead
6W

Bill:

Your points are well taken, and my comments were not one of the usual
anti-PW5 rants on r.a.s.

The main point is that your PW5 -- or any other light weight, easy to
fly, easy to rig and inexepensive glider -- will not last long in 13.5
meter class. You will not have a place to race the glider you like so
much, or any other like it.

The PW5 is already not the highest performing 13.5 meter glider. And
the minute anyone produces a modern 13.5 meter glider whose design is
optimized for performance, you're really toast. That's true whether or
not they allow ballast. An optimized no-ballast glider with a modern
wing, aerodynamic fuselage, and high wingloading will easily
outperform the PW5.

The outcome of this class is inevitable.There will be one worlds with
a mix of gliders. In the next one, only the highest performing
existing glider will show up. (russia? sparrowhawk? silent? I haven't
kept up.) and all the others will again have no place to race.

The minute a new glider is designed for world level competition in
this class, retire all of the above from racing. The new glider will
look like a scaled down ASW27. (Or maybe a scaled up version of those
monster RC models we've seen on r.a.s. lately). It will cost nearly as
much too. It will be relatively useless as an easy to fly, assemble,
etc. club glider.

We've been through all this before. The IGC split standard class in
two, so that existing flapped (Pik 20) and unflapped (Standard cirrus)
gliders would each have a home. In 3 years new gliders came out
(Discus, ventus, 19,20) optimized to each classes' rules, and those
existing gliders were all obsolete. Until club came along.

So where are you going to race a PW5 in a few years? You'll be toast
in 13.5 meter class. The club class is growing and they won't let you
in. Sports class is either going to die out, or become a ridiculous
class combining only PW5 and Nimbus 4. And that's only in the US.
There is no sports in the rest of the world.

The only answer to keep YOU racing in YOUR PW5 is a handicapped class
for lower performance gliders. I would think you'd be leading the
charge.

John Cochrane