What gliders do you hate?

Damn, Brother! I'd *HATE* that thing! chuckle, 'cuz folks that gag on
words need serious self evaluation, and I like my beer and waitresses to
have "body"


On 1/1/2015 4:36 PM, wrote:
Again... I intended this to be in this spirit of fun. "Hate" is used loose and light here. Like guys sitting around drinking and saying "You know what I hate? Being rejected by the cute waitress... and this watery beer. I think I'll have another!"

(So, read everything below in a playful voice. It's the new year. It's cold. I'm dreaming of flying... and looking for laughs.)

Trying again, what gliders do you dislike, but not so much that you use a forbidden word as "hate" to describe?

Me.... The plane I dislike most is hard to sit in, has a special trailer because the designer couldn't stand to stick to convention, ground loops like it was made for it, has a fuselage you can twist by hand, and straight-out-of-the-factory gives the pilot a 30% chance of gear collapse on every landing.

Using hate to describe this glider would be wrong (of course) but surely I can admit that I dislike it?



--
Dan Marotta

Without a doubt it has to be the IS29 Club.
Unflapped version of the Lark, it had vicious behavior
at the stall, controls that were too light, and unpredictable spinning
characteristics.
Dont think it ever got a UK C of A.
A thoroughly nasty machine to fly.

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 11:35:11 AM UTC-6, wrote:
In the spirit of fun, what gliders (makes or specific ones) do you hate, distrust, or are just plain tired of. Have you given so many rides in one model that you never want to see it again? Is there a plane that, despite treating it right, just seemed to want to hurt you? Or is there one out there that is just so ugly that you can't stand it?

My pleas won't work, but let's keep it fun. .... I'll save my example for later in the discussion but I'll give you a hint; it's Polish made.

Terry (XN) in a ASW-27 (which I love)
Blanik L-13 due to uncomfortable seating with parachute and poor visibility (compared to ASK-13 in which I trained) and Laister LP-49 which was an exceedingly poor replacement for a club Ka-6e.

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 12:35:11 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Gliders are like sex and pizza....


When it's good...it's really good....

When it's not so good....it's still good....


Cookie






In the spirit of fun, what gliders (makes or specific ones) do you hate, distrust, or are just plain tired of. Have you given so many rides in one model that you never want to see it again? Is there a plane that, despite treating it right, just seemed to want to hurt you? Or is there one out there that is just so ugly that you can't stand it?

My pleas won't work, but let's keep it fun. .... I'll save my example for later in the discussion but I'll give you a hint; it's Polish made.

Terry (XN) in a ASW-27 (which I love)

Blanik? I must be a masochist...I flew one for 8-1/2 hours straight one day...

I could still walk after landing....

I also got a NJ state 2 place distance record in a Blanik...not very far...138 miles...but, it was raining during the whole flight! (SE ridge)....

So Blanik is not so bad...

Cookie




On Wednesday, December 31, 2014 12:35:11 PM UTC-5, wrote:
In the spirit of fun, what gliders (makes or specific ones) do you hate, distrust, or are just plain tired of. Have you given so many rides in one model that you never want to see it again? Is there a plane that, despite treating it right, just seemed to want to hurt you? Or is there one out there that is just so ugly that you can't stand it?

My pleas won't work, but let's keep it fun. .... I'll save my example for later in the discussion but I'll give you a hint; it's Polish made.

Terry (XN) in a ASW-27 (which I love)

SGS-1-34???

Don't pick on the 1-34! Our club has had two, just about forever...

Great club gliders! Cheap to buy...nice to fly...leave 'em outside ready to go at any time...

You can run the ridge comfortably at 100 MPH...

Those airbrakes are fantastic!

The "R" version is real quiet..

The OLC handicap makes it a real contender...With a good pilot, it can win at sports class contests too..

Did my Gold Badge (14,000' wave in NJ!!)and two Diamonds all in 1-34...

Cookie









In the spirit of fun, what gliders (makes or specific ones) do you hate, distrust, or are just plain tired of. Have you given so many rides in one model that you never want to see it again? Is there a plane that, despite treating it right, just seemed to want to hurt you? Or is there one out there that is just so ugly that you can't stand it?

My pleas won't work, but let's keep it fun. .... I'll save my example for later in the discussion but I'll give you a hint; it's Polish made.

Terry (XN) in a ASW-27 (which I love)

On Friday, January 2, 2015 7:08:29 AM UTC-6, Cookie wrote:
SGS-1-34???

Don't pick on the 1-34! Our club has had two, just about forever...

Great club gliders! Cheap to buy...nice to fly...leave 'em outside ready to go at any time...

You can run the ridge comfortably at 100 MPH...

Those airbrakes are fantastic!

The "R" version is real quiet..

The OLC handicap makes it a real contender...With a good pilot, it can win at sports class contests too..

Did my Gold Badge (14,000' wave in NJ!!)and two Diamonds all in 1-34...

Cookie

Cookie, I did my first XC in a 1-34 out in Arizona, chasing the hotshots in their fancy glass; and occasionally fly one in our club now - but I admit I'm an "aileron man" and just can't get past how poor they are on the 1-34. I agree that the dive brakes are a hoot!

Just to avoid being tagged as a Schweizer-basher - I think the 2-32 is one of the finest big gliders ever built, love the 1-26 (especially with the sports canopy on a hot summer day), and enjoyed the 1-23 a lot. But the 2-22 (with it's simulated spoilers) and the 2-33 (you have to lift your leg off the rudder pedal to get full aileron travel? YGBSM!), not so much.

Kirk

Of around 100 glider types flown (from Slingsby Grasshopper
Primary to EB28) the only 2 I would decline to fly again are
the Reinhard Cumulus (a sort of Grunau Baby with steel-tube
fuselage, and the Gull 1 that did the first soaring flight across
the English Channel.

Both had handling I would categorise as unpleasant.

Otherwise there is just as much fun to be had on a nice (or
challenging) day in a Ka6 as romping for 100k plus without
circling in a Nimbus 4.

Terry, maybe I've already missed it here, but are your comments referring to the Diana?

For me, the most miserable glider I've ever flown is the Schweizer 1-36. Flew a nearly brand new one, thought it horrible. The pitch trim system was the main problem. It was much too powerful and made the stick very heavy. I chalked it up to being new and tight. Flew a different one thinking it had to be better. Nope just as horrible as the first. A few year later, found the mangled remains of that first 1-36 in a repair shop a long way from where I flew it.

Someone mentioned the TG-2. Flew one of those on a 60 mile ferry tow. If you think the 72 mph redline made cross country soaring tough, what about flying the thing for 60 miles on tow behind a towplane that could not tow that slow? I was never so happy to get to a reasonable bail-out altitude. The split ailerons on this one had been covered as single units and would bind a bit, resulting in limited movement and poor roll control. No rudder pedal adjustments and a fixed seat made for a very cramped seating position. However, after reaching the destination at 5000 agl, I found that the thing would spin and recover very well due to that huge rudder.

I think Kirk mentioned the Schweizer 1-23. The D models and later are probably the best gliders Schweizer ever built in serial production. One of my favorite flights of all time was in a 1-23D. Climbed the upwind side of a tall cu from it's 5000' base all the way to 8000' agl, then flew the cloud street like a ridge for an hour. Also had my first outlanding in a 1-23H15.