motorgliders as towplanes

On Mar 13, 9:09*am, Bruce wrote:
The story behind it is - experienced pilot in getting current again on
Janus forgot the thing has a drogue chute.
On a check flight the Janus is towed up from an airfield (Orient) at
5100" MSL at around 20 centigrade.
As you can see the Samba accelerates slowly - then the drogue chute
deploys. (one bump too many )
Tuggie happens to be enormously experienced CFI - uses his head and
abuses the Rotax a little. Combination manages to make a circuit and the
Janus gets dropped over the threshold.

Nice.

We disable the parachute on our Janus. I'm not even sure why it has
one. The spoilers are about the same as a Duo, PLUS it has a landing
flap setting that is effective enough that you need a fairly steep
approach if you want to use half spoilers as well, PLUS it has one
heck of an effective slip which (unlike the parachute) can be
modulated or used multiple times as desired.

On 12 Mar, 22:29, Bruce Hoult wrote:

We disable the parachute on our Janus. *I'm not even sure why it has
one.

I believe the answer is "as a fudge to meet the old JAR speed-limiting-
in-a-45-degree-dive requirement.Most drag chutes were never seriously
intended to be used for approach, or indeed to be used at all.

Do your insurers know, by the way, that you have disabled a flight
control?

Ian

On Mar 14, 10:57*am, The Real Doctor
wrote:
On 12 Mar, 22:29, Bruce Hoult wrote:

We disable the parachute on our Janus. *I'm not even sure why it has
one.

I believe the answer is "as a fudge to meet the old JAR speed-limiting-
in-a-45-degree-dive requirement.Most drag chutes were never seriously
intended to be used for approach, or indeed to be used at all.

Do your insurers know, by the way, that you have disabled a flight
control?

I have no idea. That would I imagine be a question for our chief
instructor. Personally I would not use it even if it was enabled, as
the effectiveness of the remaining controls is perfectly adequate and
exceeds that of more recent designs e.g. the Duo Discus.

On 14 Mar, 08:06, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Mar 14, 10:57*am, The Real Doctor
wrote:

Do your insurers know, by the way, that you have disabled a flight
control?

I have no idea. *That would I imagine be a question for our chief
instructor. *Personally I would not use it even if it was enabled, as
the effectiveness of the remaining controls is perfectly adequate and
exceeds that of more recent designs e.g. the Duo Discus.

I don't doubt it - the tail chute was never, as far as I know, fitted
to my club's Cirrus. But it would be an interesting problem in case of
an overshoot accident, wouldn't it?

Ian