two seat motor gliders, feedback.

Hi Jphn,

The Ximango just about meets your requirements and
is probably the best soaring machine amongst the TMG's.
Its main handling drawback is that the huge fin and
rudder and tailwheel configuration mean it is very
limited in its ability to cope with cross-winds.

The Super Dimona/Katana Extreme is a lot easier to
fly, but probably only about 27:1 and that drops off
quite rapidly with increasing speed. Higher stalling
speed too, so not so good in small thermals.

Seem to recollect that the Ximango won out on luggage
space too.

My view is, the Dimona is an aeroplane you can sometimes
soar, the Ximango is a low performance sailplane that
can be used as an aeroplane as well.

At 23:00 27 February 2005, John Firth wrote:

Any Ximango or Diamond pilots out there who would
share their experiences.
Maybe even a Europa . I am looking for 100 kt cruise
, 30+/1 L/D
motor off and good baggage capacity.
Any offers

John firth

an old , no longer bold, ex contest pilot.

Hi,

Chris Rollings wrote:

My view is, the Dimona is an aeroplane you can sometimes
soar, ...

That hits it quite well. It's a nice motor plane with L/D of a Ka8 but
thermalling is not much fun because the stick forces are high. It is also
quite heavy for a glider - with 2 people in it you almost always fly at
MTOW.

Greetings, Erik.