Stemme S12 in Michigan this Saturday, May 20th (KOZW) @ 4 pm

I owned a Stemme S10-VT for 8 years. I never scraped a wing. Once I scraped a wing tip skid, while taxiing at well above walking speed, I allowed one main wheel to drop into a drainage grate depression in the tarmac. No damage to the wing finish. I have never experienced "rocking and rolling".

As to handling, I would compare the difference between the S10 and my current ASH26E as a bit like that between a sedan and a sports car. The Stemme deals with turbulence better and gives a smoother ride. Ailerons are heavier, but I would not characterize roll as sluggish, and the addition effort is mostly unnoticed after flying for a few minutes . . . until after 5 hours or so when I found myself using two hands on the stick sometimes. Once cranked over into a thermal, the Stemme is more "stable" in that it tracks well and does not need the many small corrections one uses on a lighter ship.

Stemme ground handling is in a class by itself, making operations at even busy towered airports the same as with a power plane - blends right in.

The Stemme will operate in conditions that would have other high performance gliders staying in their boxes. Four of us launched from Cedar City after winds stiffened up overnight, blowing 35 knots mostly steady when it came time to go. Our taxiing to the runway center intersection required four 90 degree turns, all to the left, so we were exposed to that wind from every angle during taxi. I went first, and told Marty Hellman to just "cover" my wing tip, not touch it, for the first two turns when I would then be on my own. Launch required something less 20 feet and levitation straight up like an elevator! All of us took of safely.

bumper

On 5/24/2017 9:03 AM, bumper wrote:
snip

Stemme ground handling is in a class by itself, making operations at even busy towered airports the same as with a power plane - blends right in.

snip

bumper


Except in tight places. Taxiing in yesterday, I found the FBO had
parked a fuel truck about 77 feet (my span is 75') from the propeller
spinner of a Cessna. It was extremely slow taxiing between the two
using the shadows of my wing tips and the obstacles to maintain
separation. Of course, I could have folded the wings or taken an
alternate route.
--
Dan, 5J

With its dual main wheels, the Stemme can taxi on a very narrow taxiway
since the wings are always level. In crowded areas, however, the wing
span can be a problem. That can be solved by having the wings folded in
congested areas.

On 5/23/2017 3:11 PM, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 1:26:01 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Maybe I'll get the boys to bring the Ionia Arcus over to the Howell airport and see how it taxis. No question that the ArcusM is a phenomenal sailplane.

Thanks Dave.
The only issue for these big birds is availability of wide taxiways. I am lucky that from the hangar to a runway I have probably 150-200 feet wide path. I have a wing tip wheel so all of my wing needs to be on the taxi way. Some airports don't have taxiways wide enough for a 21 m ship like mine. So there is always a reason to put on the 18 m tips. Arcus has a wing wheel a few feet inboard from the wing tip and that will probably solve the narrow taxiway problem. The wankel will also easily cruise to a destination at low power settings with no heating up issues at all. You don't need full power for cruise. You would exceed speed limit for the airframe if you tried to maintain a level flight with full power.

--
Dan, 5J

On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 12:26:01 PM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
Maybe I'll get the boys to bring the Ionia Arcus over to the Howell airport and see how it taxis. No question that the ArcusM is a phenomenal sailplane.

Thanks Dave.

All the older Stemmes' are above gross weight with 2 normal people and a little gas on board. When I pointed that out to a Stemme rep at Oshkosh some time ago, he quickly tried to change the subject. The latest model has a MTOW of 900 kg but they don't list an empty weight anywhere. Legally most Stemmes can't be flown dual but they obviously don't fall apart if you do. I was not as impressed with the glider as Sean when taking a flight with Glider Bob years ago.
Herb

It's definitely big 25 meter glider (by far the largest I have ever flown) but it was still very fun to thermal soar. I guess it's more balanced that the S10, but not sure what that means exactly (hands off in bank). I have no real S10 experience with which to compare.

Also the prop assembly needs refurbishing every 200 hours at some not insignificant expense.

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