Outstanding soaring video

On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 7:45:44 PM UTC-5, Duster wrote:
On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 2:25:53 PM UTC-5, wrote:
When I bought my Ventus, it had Two rearview mirrors mounted to the glare shield each was about 3 inches in diameter and convex type. I found them totally useless. There is no way you are going to see someone in them yet alone avoid them unless your constantly staring at it. Add to the fact that they considerably blocked my forward view they went first, then I took off the Hamilton vertical card compass next. The next 2500 hours in the plane were much more enjoyable.

If he's flying a motorized glider, the mirror may be used to confirm pylon position. I found a similar, small, convex mirror at an auto supply store..

Yea, at the PAGC I needed to comply with the FAI's safety requirements by having 3 items off a certain list installed. I had a SPOT tracker and I had a FLARM so that was good. But most of the other things were items like a Safety Cockpit or a NOAH pilot extraction system. Neither are an option on my Standard Cirrus. So a quick trip to Auto Zone and I had a stick on convex mirror. It stuck nicely to the glare shield and its still there. It has in fact come in handy for keeping an eye on someone on my six once or twice.

If he's flying a motorized glider, the mirror may be used to
confirm pylon position.

Good point..

I looked at his other videos. In one, he states that he won the 18m
class at Bayreuth this year. Checking the Bayreuth results yields PK
-Phillip Keller winning the 18m class in a Ventus-2cxM, so the
conjecture of a motorized glider is probably confirmed.

As a side note, I had to use two small (~2") convex mirrors on
either side of the glare shield of my old Discus-b because I sat so
far back that my view behind the 3-9 O'Clock line (due to canopy
frame and fuselage blocking) was next to non-existent. I am 6'2",
and I had to remove the headrest and seat back to fit in the cockpit.
I flew in one USA Nationals, and two WGC's in that configuration.
Sometimes, there were ~60!! other gliders in the same pre-start
thermal with me (all trying to out-climb each other), so you can
imagine that those mirrors got a lot of use. Being convex, whatever
you see in the mirror is obviously a LOT larger in real life, so when I
saw someone in a mirror, I knew they were VERY close behind /
underneath me. The mirrors helped, but in the end, I sold the
Discus-b in favor of an ASW-24. The shape of the canopy on the
-24 allowed me to be able to see the tail of my glider without a
mirror. The Discus-2b, which I fly now, has a much larger/longer
cockpit than the original Discus-b, so now I am able to sit much
further forward of the canopy frame, and also have good direct
rearward visibility. A direct view is always better than a mirror,
but a mirror is better than nothing at all... FWIW

RO

Rear view mirror was required on my ASH-26E. I replaced the factory mirror with a pair of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Flew the last 15 years with them and they work great. Recently switched to ASW-27 and got a pair for that as well.

When thermalling, I can see someone on my 5-7 o'clock as a small speck but still at a glance. Sure beats having to turn my head all the time to confirm their position. Also works for keeping an eye on someone within a few hundred feet behind me while in cruise. Certainly more reliable than the POS FLARM that came with the ship.

For the '26, I cut the clip in half, drilled a couple holes in it and attached to the top of the glare shield. On the '27, I discovered that the clip actually works works quite well to hold it to the glare shield.

-Tom


On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 5:45:44 PM UTC-7, Duster wrote:
On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 2:25:53 PM UTC-5, wrote:
When I bought my Ventus, it had Two rearview mirrors mounted to the glare shield each was about 3 inches in diameter and convex type. I found them totally useless. There is no way you are going to see someone in them yet alone avoid them unless your constantly staring at it. Add to the fact that they considerably blocked my forward view they went first, then I took off the Hamilton vertical card compass next. The next 2500 hours in the plane were much more enjoyable.

If he's flying a motorized glider, the mirror may be used to confirm pylon position. I found a similar, small, convex mirror at an auto supply store..