Why are side sticks unpopular in sailplanes

On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:00:08 -0800 (PST), Soartech
wrote:

I also flew a gimbaled side-stick for 8 years in a Millennium ultralight sailplane. It was so smooth, natural and comfortable I looked for a sailplane with the same arrangement. But alas, all I could find were clunky setups with sliding sticks. No wonder side sticks get a bad rap in our little world. The center stick is OK, side stick is better, more natural.

Just a question:
How do you fly with a side stick if you need your right hand to, say,
take a leak? Or change a setting on the panel?

Did you train yourself to do all these things with the left hand?

On 2/23/2017 9:41 AM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:00:08 -0800 (PST), Soartech
wrote:

I also flew a gimbaled side-stick for 8 years in a Millennium ultralight
sailplane. It was so smooth, natural and comfortable I looked for a
sailplane with the same arrangement. But alas, all I could find were
clunky setups with sliding sticks. No wonder side sticks get a bad rap in
our little world. The center stick is OK, side stick is better, more
natural.

Just a question: How do you fly with a side stick if you need your right
hand to, say, take a leak? Or change a setting on the panel?

Did you train yourself to do all these things with the left hand?


Oh goody! Is this where the conversation degenerates into increasingly loud
personal protestations of "bestness?"

Color me perplexed to understand how a side stick fundamentally differs from a
center stick in regard to these sorts of matters. Save for my (rightside)
stick hand, every glider cockpit in which I've flown has always depended on
the left hand for everything but (with one exception - and it was in a
center-stick-cockpit) cycling the landing gear. None of them *required*
switching hands to operate anything on the instrument panel.

That said, I understand "natural lefties" might choose - with a center stick -
to set up their instrument panels so as to favor use of the right hand to
operate panel stuff. I also understand the profusion of electronics today with
still-increasing gobs of fiddly bits may - in many a glider pilot mind - make
it "necessary" to use both hands to operate stuff. Coming soon to a glider
cockpit near you - a ship with a one-channel autopilot so both hands can
operate panel bits simultaneously? Ah, progress!

Bob W.

On Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 8:23:23 PM UTC+3, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 2/23/2017 9:41 AM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:00:08 -0800 (PST), Soartech
wrote:

I also flew a gimbaled side-stick for 8 years in a Millennium ultralight
sailplane. It was so smooth, natural and comfortable I looked for a
sailplane with the same arrangement. But alas, all I could find were
clunky setups with sliding sticks. No wonder side sticks get a bad rap in
our little world. The center stick is OK, side stick is better, more
natural.

Just a question: How do you fly with a side stick if you need your right
hand to, say, take a leak? Or change a setting on the panel?

Did you train yourself to do all these things with the left hand?


Oh goody! Is this where the conversation degenerates into increasingly loud
personal protestations of "bestness?"

Color me perplexed to understand how a side stick fundamentally differs from a
center stick in regard to these sorts of matters. Save for my (rightside)
stick hand, every glider cockpit in which I've flown has always depended on
the left hand for everything but (with one exception - and it was in a
center-stick-cockpit) cycling the landing gear. None of them *required*
switching hands to operate anything on the instrument panel.

That said, I understand "natural lefties" might choose - with a center stick -
to set up their instrument panels so as to favor use of the right hand to
operate panel stuff. I also understand the profusion of electronics today with
still-increasing gobs of fiddly bits may - in many a glider pilot mind - make
it "necessary" to use both hands to operate stuff. Coming soon to a glider
cockpit near you - a ship with a one-channel autopilot so both hands can
operate panel bits simultaneously? Ah, progress!

Which channel?

Gliders seem to in general be fine hands-off for 30 seconds or so at a time. Usually the thing that makes me nudge the stick first is bank/heading, as it takes quite a lot longer for the phugoid to get out of control.

On Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 9:23:23 AM UTC-8, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 2/23/2017 9:41 AM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:00:08 -0800 (PST), Soartech
wrote:

I also flew a gimbaled side-stick for 8 years in a Millennium ultralight
sailplane. It was so smooth, natural and comfortable I looked for a
sailplane with the same arrangement. But alas, all I could find were
clunky setups with sliding sticks. No wonder side sticks get a bad rap in
our little world. The center stick is OK, side stick is better, more
natural.

Just a question: How do you fly with a side stick if you need your right
hand to, say, take a leak? Or change a setting on the panel?

Did you train yourself to do all these things with the left hand?


Oh goody! Is this where the conversation degenerates into increasingly loud
personal protestations of "bestness?"

Color me perplexed to understand how a side stick fundamentally differs from a
center stick in regard to these sorts of matters. Save for my (rightside)
stick hand, every glider cockpit in which I've flown has always depended on
the left hand for everything but (with one exception - and it was in a
center-stick-cockpit) cycling the landing gear. None of them *required*
switching hands to operate anything on the instrument panel.

That said, I understand "natural lefties" might choose - with a center stick -
to set up their instrument panels so as to favor use of the right hand to
operate panel stuff. I also understand the profusion of electronics today with
still-increasing gobs of fiddly bits may - in many a glider pilot mind - make
it "necessary" to use both hands to operate stuff. Coming soon to a glider
cockpit near you - a ship with a one-channel autopilot so both hands can
operate panel bits simultaneously? Ah, progress!

Bob W.

Ergonomics, human factors... something not touched on yet is that a center stick allows your body to become the 'armrest', which adds a whole lot more nerves to the biological servo feedback loop, plus your leg even gets involved in stabilizing inputs under certain conditions.

A center stick also allows a larger 'throw range', spreading the same inputs across a larger physical area translates into finer granular resolution.

Center stick can be flown with eitehr hand in case you need to do something with your right hand.

Center stick is a longer lever, thus allowing less muscle to hold it steady or affect inputs, which generally translates into increased precision, plus allows the use of 2 hands as Jonothon points out.