Why are side sticks unpopular in sailplanes

On Sun, 19 Feb 2017 05:08:07 -0800, Tango Eight wrote:

On Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 7:14:48 AM UTC-5, J. Nieuwenhuize wrote:
Side sticks seem pretty popular in powered aircraft. Personally like
them.
In sailplanes they have the additional advantage of allowing either a
smaller cockpit (less drag) or more room. Diana, HP18 and several older
designs have them.

Yet, they seem highly unpopular. Why would a well-designed sidesticks
not be liked, just because it's different, or are there reasons I'm
missing?

Had a side stick for a decade. Center stick is just better.

Can you expand a bit, please?

I wondered if the short grip-pivot lever might raise stick forces in roll
and/or coarsen aileron control, but I've flown a DG-300, which has a
similarly short grip-pivot distance on the roll axis as well as the same
sliding pitch motion and don't recall that I found the control feel a lot
different from a centre stick.

The only thing I recall that's comment-worthy is that the DG-300's
'automatic trim' system has a more friction in it than the Libelle's
system, but that has nothing to do with side sticks.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
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