Sparrowhawk handling

Early in my soaring history I acquired 6 hours in a SparrowHawk. It is still the most fun of any glider that I have flown! I now have in excess of 800 hours glider time. The SH is by far the most responsive glider that I have flown- it has almost zero inertia, meaning that when you give a control input, the glider almost instantly goes to the new orientation and does not go past your desired orientation- it is like you are wearing it or it is part of you. The rudder is extremely responsive. On my first flight I was all over the place immediately after lift off and a little bit scary. I learned to lock my knees on the second takeoff and everything was fine. I stayed up out over the desert on my first flight for 45 minutes when no one else could fly. It can thermal on cigarette smoke! Cross country it penetrates much like a PW-5, however, it feels like a Ferrari while the PW-5 feels like a pickup truck and a Grob 103 feels like a big Cadillac. Two weak areas are the canopy and the landing gear- it is my understanding quite a few repairs have been needed in those two areas. A big surprise can happen on landing.. Since there is no suspension for the landing gear it can be quite noisy on touchdown when the fuselage attachment flexes- think of a .410 shotgun going off in the cockpit. I still have great fondness for the SH and someday if I feel that I no longer need long XC flights, I may try to find one to buy. I feel it is safe for a low time pilot, provided he has had some single seat experience and is aware of how responsive it will be on liftoff- it has more rudder than anything that I have flown!

On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 10:39:14 PM UTC+3, wrote:
At 60kts we climb out at 1000fpm, and the nose is pitched
up a bit too high and the dash blocks the view of the
towplane, so 65kts works much better.

I used to feel that way in the PW5 until I realized that I was trying to keep the towplane on (or near to) the horizon. The climb rate and angle is so great in a light glider behind a powerful Pawnee that the towplane should be nowhere near the horizon! You are probably WAY above the path that the towplane took. Drop down until you feel the slipstream, then come up a little. Now the glider's nose won't be in the way.

On Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 9:44:17 AM UTC-5, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 10:39:14 PM UTC+3, wrote:
At 60kts we climb out at 1000fpm, and the nose is pitched
up a bit too high and the dash blocks the view of the
towplane, so 65kts works much better.

I used to feel that way in the PW5 until I realized that I was trying to keep the towplane on (or near to) the horizon. The climb rate and angle is so great in a light glider behind a powerful Pawnee that the towplane should be nowhere near the horizon! You are probably WAY above the path that the towplane took. Drop down until you feel the slipstream, then come up a little. Now the glider's nose won't be in the way.

Thanks for the tip Bruce, I did try it and thought is worked well. I am a little concerned about the tow rope metal link rubbing the nose section. I use a shorter weak link (about 8 inches) and I wonder if the rope is rubbing on my glider at that angle? I did notice some scuff marks on the nose when I was putting my glider away.

How does Sparrowhawk feels inside? I guess, it's quite shaky due to low weight and not so flexible wings?

Since this thread has drifted into Sparrowhawk related topics:

Any possibility of an electric sustainer for Sparrowhawk?

That would be a valuable option for me. Would consider self launch as well.

ZEN KA6CR Driver

On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 6:47:32 PM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
Since this thread has drifted into Sparrowhawk related topics:

Any possibility of an electric sustainer for Sparrowhawk?

Spoke to Greg a yr ago or so and he was considering or at least thought he could build an electric motor himself for a FES model.

As for the underage and several having repairs; I thought that was from the long ground effect and those trying to land the glider before it settled. It floats and landing is ultralight.