First glider to buy 10-20k euro's

On Fri, 16 Mar 2018 08:02:09 -0700, Tom BravoMike wrote:

After having spoken to a few DG/Libelle/Cirrus owners I am really
considering the Libelle. What would be the points to look out for when
buying one, in your opinion?

In the Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasflügel_H-201

it says:"they are quite sensitive to sideslipping and have relatively
ineffective air brakes that make short landings tricky for inexperienced
pilots". I wonder what 'sensitive to sideslipping' means in this case.

Pass. Mine has no bad habits when slipping and tends to come out of the
slip at the same speed as it went in, assuming that was the trimmed
speed. It does comes down fast in a full-blooded slip thanks all the drag
generated by pushing that razorback tail boom sideways. This compensates
nicely for the relatively weak airbrakes - but even Libelle brakes scrub
off height quite nicely if you push the nose down.

About the only thing a pilot needs to watch is that a fully held-off, two
point landing is a little trickier than in, say a Pegase, Discus or
Junior because the brakes aren't doing a whole lot after you've flaired.
So, if you're a little quick to lift the nose to the two point attitude
the glider will balloon. A lot of pilots put Libelles down on their main
wheel for this reason, but unless you're asleep behind the stick its easy
enough to correct for the balloon without making a hard landing.

That said, I usually do two pointers with mine because I like the feeling
of both wheels touching the ground simultaneously and staying down. But
it did need a bit of practise at first.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org